When Everything is Important But Nothing is Getting Done

When projects are scoped too large, a few things happen: They take a long time to deliver, which means that work is locked up for long periods of time without creating value.

Objectives are great! “Objectives versus priorities” is similar to “problem versus solution” thinking. Objectives tell you the goal and let you figure out how to get there. You set your own priorities and the only thing that matters is if the goal is achieved or not.

- Identify and fix your organizational constraints -Create a clear finish line

The definition of done we implemented had three key questions for us to answer:-Did it solve the user problem?-Was it deployed to production? -Has it been in use for a ‘long-enough’ period of time?

"High-medium-low" doesn’t scale. At four or more tasks, you’re forced to start doubling down on designations or to create subcategories of priorities. Eventually, you find yourself with a bucket of “high priority” projects wherein you don’t know what to tackle first.

I wanted to highlight that there is not a “Just Do This One Simple Trick” solution to challenging organizational problems. These issues build up over long periods of time and form deeply held and sometimes unconscious patterns of organizational behavior. No one intends to build processes that don’t work, but they sometimes implement processes that ... See more

-Sequence projects & commit to that sequence

Your goal with any project should be to solve user problems, not just to ship features.

Our projects were scoped too large. The larger they got, the longer they took and the more risk and scope creep was introduced.