✂️ What's the first thing you cut when you're moving too slow?
When I notice a project dragging, my reflex is always to cut scope. Trim the feature down, ship the smaller version, get something out the door instead of polishing the grand plan forever.
And usually that's the right call. Most of the time I was building more than the problem actually needed, and cutting it loose feels great.
But every so often scope isn't the real problem. The thing slowing me down is that I'm (semi-unconsciously) protecting a decision I should've killed weeks ago, some architecture choice or direction I committed to early and don't want to admit was wrong.
Cutting scope there just makes me build the wrong thing faster. It feels like progress because I'm shipping, but I'm shipping in a direction I should've abandoned.
The hard part is telling those two apart in the moment. "I'm overbuilding" and "I'm committed to a bad call" both feel like being slow, and I usually can't tell which one I'm in until much later.
So when you catch yourself moving too slow, what's the first thing you reach for? Scope, the plan, the team, or the decision you don't want to revisit?
Replies
Like you, I look at the scope, I ask will the end user use or benefit from a feature, if not it goes.
Most of the time I don't cut features first. I cut the amount of time I'm spending trying to make the original idea work. Sometimes the real bottleneck is being too attached to the first solution
@maxmusing I usually try to separate “too much work” from “wrong direction” first. If users still want the outcome but the path is too heavy, I cut scope. If I’m simplifying and still feel resistance, it’s often a sign the original decision needs to be questioned, not just trimmed.
I have seen products get attention because of the founder, but the ones that last usually build a string identity beyond one person.
A friend of mine started sharing progress before launch and it helped find early users, but they kept the product brand separate from personal profile.
NINA
The first thing I cut is certainty.
When I'm moving too slowly, it's often because I'm trying to prove that my original plan was right before taking the next step. I keep collecting evidence, refining, tweaking.
Now I ask myself: "What would I do if I weren't allowed to defend my previous decisions?"
Surprisingly often, the answer is completely different from what I'm currently working on.