This story is about fights for control and struggles for power. It‘s about missed deadlines and fingers being pointed. It‘s about misaligned incentives and missed quarterly targets. Maybe you‘ve already heard this story. Maybe this is your story.

Annie is hired as a product manager to help a startup grow. She immediately sees that there are a few tweaks that she believes will make a huge impact. She asks the engineering team to run an A/B test. The engineering manager puts the task in the backlog.

Annie waits.

And waits.

She asks about status. The engineers have other priorities. But this is Annie‘s top priority.

Weeks pass, Annie has to escalate. The test is finally live. Annie is the first one, the only one, to notice the typo. The test is taken down. She asks how long a fix will take. The next two sprints are full. Annie waits.

The quarter ends and only 2 of Annie‘s ideas are live. She had planned so many amazing innovations that had to be cut. Her performance review... it doesn‘t go well.

This story is about endless bug reports and bottomless backlogs. It‘s about scope creep and daily standups. It‘s about tech debt and lost sleep. Maybe you‘ve already heard this story. Maybe this is your story.

Eric shows up at the office at 10 AM. His hair is messier than usual. There was a site issue last night. Eric didn‘t sign off until after 3 AM. His manager told him to take the day off, or at least not come in until after lunch. If only he could. The deadlines don‘t care how much sleep he gets.

Eric works.

And works.

His manager reminds him about the A/B test Product wants to run. But, first fix the caching issue and the bug in the signup form.

Weeks pass, the A/B test is suddenly the top priority. Updating copy is not Eric‘s favorite task. The test is finally live, but there was a typo. The test is taken down. Eric goes back to working on the big product launch.

The quarter ends and the product that was supposed to launch is still not done. Eric did so much work. How did so little get done? His performance review... it doesn‘t go well.