Challenge

We form a long-term vision, meeting challenges with courage and creativity to realize our dreams.

Porridge Beta

Back to the universal principles

Calibration

Under, just right, over.

SituationUnderJust RightOver
Scoping this week's workTreats the ticket as the whole job. Does not ask what larger outcome the work is for.Names the larger outcome, then cuts this week to the smallest slice that tests it. The team can see the ambition and still finish something real by Friday.Inflates a one week ticket into a program before anyone has tried a small version. Nearby commitments slip while the plan grows.
A customer asks for a tweakBuilds exactly the tweak and stops. Never asks whether the request points at a bigger gap.Ships a useful fix this week and writes down the larger need it hints at. The customer gets help now, and the team has a better idea of what to build next.Pauses the tweak to redesign the whole product around one request. The customer waits, and the team spends the week on a vision that nothing can test yet.
Writing the proposalThe proposal only covers what the team already knows how to do. The request is safe and easy to forget.States a goal that would matter if it worked, then proposes a cheap first test. Reviewers can argue about both the ambition and the first step in the same meeting.The proposal is all vision and no first step. The room agrees with the vision and leaves with nothing to build this week.
When a constraint feels fixedTreats headcount, tooling, or policy as immovable and shrinks the idea to fit. Nobody asks whether the constraint should change.Names the constraint, checks whether it is real, and either works around it or asks specifically for it to be lifted. The idea stays large enough to matter, and the request is specific enough to get an answer this week.Insists every constraint come off the table before any work starts. The team waits on permissions when a smaller test could have run.
The standup updateReports only the task. Teammates cannot tell what larger bet the work belongs to.Ties today's task to the larger bet in one sentence, then says what will be true by Friday. People leave knowing the direction and what this week should prove.Uses standup to restate the long vision. The update runs long and nobody knows what is shipping.
Reviewing a designApproves a design that only clears the current ticket. Does not ask what happens if the bet actually works.Asks how the design would hold up if usage grew, then accepts a simpler first version if the path to that scale is clear. The author leaves with a small first version to build and knows which limit to plan for next.Rejects every simple design until it handles imagined future scale. The first version never ships, and the team keeps redrawing.
Picking the next experimentPicks the safest test, the one that cannot change anyone's mind. The bigger question stays untouched.Chooses an experiment small enough to run this week that would change the larger bet if it failed. The team accepts a clear no in exchange for a clearer direction.Designs an experiment so large it needs new infrastructure first. The question that could have been answered this week waits.
A workaround shows upNotes the workaround and moves on. Treats it as a one-off instead of a signal of a larger unmet need.Eases the immediate pain, then spends an hour asking what people are really trying to get done with the workaround. A bigger opportunity gets named without dropping this week's work.Throws out the current plan to turn the workaround into the next big product. Focus scatters and committed work slips.

Further reading

Sources and essays on this principle.

See something wrong or missing? Fix it in Facet.