I wanted work to survive the handoff between Product and Engineering. A priority needed to mean something after someone started implementing it. A bug fix that grew into a feature needed another decision about its value and place in the queue. Engineering work discovered after kickoff still needed time, even if it had been missing from the estimate.
Without that agreement, the implementer gets two choices: decide, risking accountability for a choice disconnected from intent; or block, waiting for someone qualified to decide. A late answer may no longer fit the architecture or the deadline. Either way, the cost is already being paid.
I pushed for basic contracts around work entering and leaving the backlog: establish them, then honor them. Who benefits? Why do they matter most right now? Who can change the direction, and who follows through? The business can bob, weave, zig, and zag to meet the market. Everyone still needs to know which way is forward.
Some of this looks pedantic. It can also produce more measurable overhead. I would bet the farm that it costs less than working valueless stories, realigning mid-flight, or discovering at the last minute that nobody was confident enough in the agreement to finish the work.
The fastest team I had worked with scheduled twice the meetings with half the developers. Much of the team worked in business analysis, project and product management, or UI/UX. They still iterated at a furious clip because the outcomes moved the work forward. That was my experience, not a staffing formula.
I kept coming back to four questions:
- Trust. Are my thoughts, concerns, and interests worthy of consideration?
- Confidence. Who gains value? Who loses it? What is the next step for me?
- Discipline. Are we executing as agreed? Are we leaving gaps others must fill?
- Ownership. Who is accountable? Who makes decisions? Who will follow through?
Too much process wears people out. So does too little. Information has a transfer cost regardless of medium. A meeting can settle a decision, or it can consume everyone’s time without settling anything. Removing it leaves the same question: how does the information get to the people who need it, in time to change what they do?