Research
Leadership demo recovery plan
Convert unclear product direction into one thin, credible end-to-end demo with explicit ownership.
Situation
Haytham recently joined a cross-functional software project and has authority over technical and process decisions. Product scope remains owned by the Product Director. The delivery team includes three developers (one senior and two junior), an architect, project manager, UX/UI, and a product person. The VP Engineering is the sponsor.
Current operating gap:
- Product direction is not being translated clearly.
- UX has raised concerns about the lack of direction.
- Engineering is building despite uncertainty.
- The team lacks an agreed demo narrative and scope.
- The demo is next week.
Recommendation
Optimize for one credible, thin end-to-end story, not broad feature coverage. Do not allow the team to continue expanding work against unresolved product ambiguity.
Recovery sequence
- Product decision: VP Engineering and Product Director commit the narrative, target user, minimum flow, exclusions, and the owner for translating direction.
- Scope translation: Product, UX, PM, architect, senior developer, and Haytham turn the decision into vertical slices with acceptance criteria and named owners.
- Full-team reset: communicate the committed scope, explicit cuts, risks, daily check-in, and escalation path.
- Execution: run short daily checks; inspect a rough end-to-end flow by Wednesday; rehearse Thursday and Friday; cut scope when risk appears.
Role split
- Product Director: final product narrative, priority, and scope.
- Product person: requirements, priorities, and communication of decisions.
- UX/UI: user flow and interaction coherence.
- Architect: technical feasibility and risk.
- PM: schedule, dependencies, decision log, and escalation tracking.
- Haytham: focus, working agreements, blocker removal, and accountability.
The full meeting-by-meeting plan is retained locally at /Users/haytham/leadership-notes/monday-recovery-day.html.