How do you know when to cut corners to get a product out the door?

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How do you know when to cut corners to get a product out the door?

Asked at Google over a year ago

8.9k views

& 3 other companies

Asked at

& 3 other companies

8.9k views

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Chetan Channa · Answer 1 · 2021-07-19T03:34:51+0000

While roadmap & project planning should take care and have mitigation plans for known externalities, sometimes because of unforseen events, there comes a time when corners have to be cut to meet the goals. In my opinion, corners can be cut for :-

Quality
Scope
Time
People/Resources

There should never be any compromise on quality and hence cutting corners on 'Quality' should never be thought of. In the remaining 3, atleast one should be changeable to make the product happen in case any replanning is required.

Can quality be compromised ?	Can Time be increased ?	Can Scope be reduced ?	Can people be added ?	Comment
N	N	N	N	Not possible to roll-out the product/feature
N	N	N	Y	Add people, don't cut corners. Make sure to account for when new people would be productive.
N	N	Y	N	Cut Corners & Reduce Scope. Remove a feature whose RICE score is minimum. Such situations arise when :- Effort estimated is not in line with actuals Unknown Challenge or Surprise Arose External factors like competitive actions
N	N	Y	Y	Add people and reduce scope to meet the timelines.
N	Y	N	N	Don't cut corners and move date of launch forward
N	Y	N	Y	Do both to maintain balance.
N	Y	Y	N
N	Y	Y	Y

So as you can see, cutting corners is only needed in case the project is time pressure and it is not possible to add more people. This can happen due to :-

Bad Planning - Efforts Estimated are not in line for actuals
People Related Issues - Key people leave in between
Competitive actions - Need to launch something before competition and you are sure the product after the scope being cut still out performs the competitor
External Changes - Some big external change (Political, Social, Economical) which enforces the launch to happen before a date or else business utility is greatly diminished.

praveeny2k · Answer 2 · 2018-12-31T16:12:48+0000

There's always an urgency to get a product out the door. Still the important times are when:

You need some data to prove the hypothesis.
The team has already taken more than 3 times the time it was initially supposed to be.
When you get a contrasting road-map and need to see which path to undertake.
When the time of the year is about to come which may get the most sales.
When you've created sufficient channels to distribute the product.
When you've analysed the shortcomings in the features of the competitor and you're sure that your new product can solve those problems very fast.
When the features sufficient for MVP has been developed and tested thoroughly.