High-Integrity Commitments

Cagan argues that the friction around commitments in Agile product teams stems from making them too early, before the team knows whether a solution is feasible, valuable, and viable. Because product ideas often fail or need several iterations, unvalidated dates set up both sides for frustration. He proposes a compromise: give product teams time for discovery to validate solutions with customers, engineers, and stakeholders, then commit once risks are reduced. Such commitments, which he calls high-integrity, rest on evidence and a clearer view of expected business results. Delivery managers help ensure dates account for team capacity and dependencies.

01Key takeaways

• Avoid making firm commitments before you know whether the solution will work for customers and the business.
• Ask stakeholders for a defined window of discovery time in exchange for more reliable commitments later.
• Validate solutions on four fronts: customer value, usability, engineering feasibility, and business viability.
• Use discovery outcomes to make commitments with stated confidence and expected business results.
• Involve delivery managers to account for team availability and dependencies, not just estimates of build effort.

02Key sections

The tension around commitments

Executives need dates for hiring, marketing, and contracts, while product teams resist committing to deliverables they do not yet understand. Ideas often fail or need several iterations to succeed.

Why commitments go wrong

The root cause is timing: commitments are made before the team knows whether it can deliver and whether the solution will solve the customer's problem.

Using discovery to reduce risk

Discovery answers feasibility, value, usability, and viability questions before costly production building, so the team can speak with more confidence.

High-integrity commitments

Once a viable solution exists, the team can make an informed commitment about timing and expected results, and decide whether the work is worth doing at all.

The role of delivery managers

Delivery managers track capacity and dependencies, since an engineering estimate means little if the team is busy elsewhere.

03From the post

“A partnership dedicated to teaching best practices to product teams and product leaders”

04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.