Allow Your Developer Team in the Decision-Making Process

Let me know if you've faced this as a Product Manager.

You release a feature.

A few months in, you change your mind and plan to make fundamental changes to your approach which will require a re-do.

You lock in the spec & when the developer teams sees it, they flip out.

"We just completed this a few sprints ago. Why the heck are we changing this again?"

Then, you get labelled as confused, fickle & incompetent. Developers start exchanging "that" look across the sprint meetings.

Yes, that one.

Gossip. Whispers. Wedgies.

(OK I made that last one up)

But are you still nodding?

Alright then.

You can avoid this by involving developers very early on in the process:
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1. Always tell them the "Why", not just the "What"

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2. Advertise the assumptions you're making. Let them appreciate the ambiguity you are challenged with.

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3. Conduct a pre-mortem together & visualize the worst case scenario

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4. Use "their" estimates, not your own

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I dig this quote with respect to this:
"If you dent a friend's car, they'd regret lending it to you despite your best excuses. However, if they were strapped in the passenger seat as it happened, they'd probably let it go."