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Product feedback and feature requests customers are sending usfrom users
Bugs as they have their own prioritization & response framework
A simple task you have to get done in order to get you unblocked (eg: promotion request, creating an API key, …)
Signs of when something is potentially a High-Integrity Commitment
If we wouldn’t don’t do the work, it would have major consequences on for Awell or the customer (eg: losing a customer, them not being able to go live, not being able to sign a customer, …). It’s not that these things make it automatically a High-Integrity Commitment, we still reserve ourselves the right to not do things because of reasons, but it’s worth considering it.
It requires an intervention in the product (actual product work)
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Discovery helps de-risking commitments
Ask the customer to give us a little time to do discovery discover and investigate a potential solution
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Building software takes time, it’s like running a marathon. There’s already enough pressure to deliver good software and there’s absolutely no value in adding deadlines.
Regular product work follows a cadence of roughly 6 weeks where projects can either be of a small appetite (2 weeks) or big appetite (6 weeks). This means that at most, the release of something that is known we will deliver is a maximum of 2 or 6 weeks out. Those timelines should be short enough to give perspective without falling into the trap of “when is this exactly released?”.
Underpromise and overdeliver. If you have to say a project is 6 weeks out for release but then actually we release it 2 weeks early, then we are giving our customers a nice 🎁 (where the inverse can actual hurt our reputation).
But what should we do when a customer asks when a certain feature or project will be released (assuming it is in the current cycle)?
We can tell them we expect it to be released by the end of the cycle and if appropriate, we can give some nuance about small & big appetite projects (2 vs. 6 weeks out).
We don’t say any dates or weeks but we can provide some directional guidance (eg: end of the Month, end of the Q, …quarter)
0️⃣|1️⃣ Commitments are binary
We either deliver what we promised or we don’t. When a high-integrity commitment is made, we absolutely expect it to be delivered. At the first sign of trouble, we should raise the flag and inform the team.
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Given the importance, nature, and impact on the team of high-integrity commitments, leadership (CEO, CTO, and/or CPOHead of Engineering, Head of Product) must personally agree to each high-integrity commitment because there’s a reputation at the line and maybe even more importantimportantly, potentially a relationship with a customer/partner, or even legal consequences.
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High-integrity commitments should be the exception and not the rule. Otherwise, it’s a slippery slope and basically becomes has the risk of becoming a roadmap in disguise (- and even worse, is externally controlled 🤯).
🪤 Traps
Too many commitments
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