By Marty Cagan · svpg.com · LinkedIn
Marty Cagan describes the "feed the beast" problem, where product teams feed a hungry development organization with specs just to keep engineers busy, regardless of whether the products are worth building. He argues that maximizing engineering utilization often comes at the cost of maximizing results, and that treating developers purely as coders wastes about half their value. The better approach is to ensure teams have evidence that what they build will succeed. Cagan offers practical alternatives for when teams are stuck in a just-in-time cycle, such as keeping a backlog of validated specs, assigning engineers to infrastructure or defect work, or involving them in discovery. He also notes that imbalanced team ratios can create the same problem.
01Key takeaways
- Keep engineers fully utilized on valuable work, not just busy on any work.
- Maintain a backlog of validated product specs covering roughly a month of work so you can pivot when an idea fails testing.
- Involve developers in product discovery to tap their full value beyond coding.
- Use infrastructure, defect, and performance work to fill gaps rather than rushing unvalidated specs into development.
- Check that product, design, and engineering ratios are balanced so one product manager is not defining work for too many developers.
- Prioritize building something worth building over keeping the development team busy.
02Key sections
- The beast and its appetite
- Feed the beast is the panic to deliver a fresh spec whenever engineers become free, regardless of its quality. The beast cannot tell worthwhile work from waste.
- Why the mindset persists
- The belief that engineers are the largest cost drives a push to keep them busy, which maximizes utilization but not outcomes. Treating developers as a software factory limits their contribution.
- Building the right product
- Good organizations give engineers something worth building backed by evidence of success. Confusing building the right product with building the product right, plus a schedule-focused culture, fuels the problem.
- Escaping the just-in-time trap
- Teams can keep a month-long backlog of validated specs, have developers work on infrastructure, defects, or performance, or involve them in discovery. Project managers should stay out of the driver's seat during discovery.
- Team balance matters
- Too many developers per product manager or designer leaves teams perpetually behind. Proper ratios help teams use their engineers well.
03From the post
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Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.