I'm not sure I like this metaphor, but here's a version of how it can fail (perhaps only in a dysfunctional org). PE: Sits down "We're driving to 123 Main St."

I'm not sure I like this metaphor, but here's a version of how it can fail (perhaps only in a dysfunctional org). PE: Sits down "We're driving to 123 Main St." Manager: Sits down "We want to be there within 9 months. We'll first try and get to a similar street, 456 Blue St., within 3 months." SE: "Uh, this is a Wendy's, not a car." When people spend all their time in meetings and not enough time in the product (or the product's technical architecture) they're going to lose track of what has actually been built and what its capabilities are. Similarly even with seemingly infinite meetings to address all sorts of interesting issues from stakeholders, roadmap destinations can only be so accurate for each distance in the future. I'm not even digging on the manager for having an intermediary destination; experience tells there's a reason to go to 456 Blue St. first (agile philosophies might help with even tighter midway reevaluation points) because maybe once we're there, we'll learn something and decide we wanted 125 Main St. instead of 123. No meeting can tell us that ahead of time.