It is human issue. Business requires goals and timelines. I agree that the issue comes from a lack of transparency, poor culture, and the human desire to be "ri

It is human issue. Business requires goals and timelines. I agree that the issue comes from a lack of transparency, poor culture, and the human desire to be "right". Not setting a deadline is unacceptable to business though. I can't imagine sales or the end customer would ever accept not knowing when they can expect product delivery. If delays are communicated, engineering is respected, and no one is looking to blame someone for delays then the whole thing runs fine. As long as company culture does not run around making people feel bad about not hitting timelines you get more honest timelines from people. But as a product manager I am forced to ask engineering to try and deliver some things sooner than they estimated. Just like I have to disappoint customers by saying products are delayed, or sales that something is more expensive, I have to disappoint engineering with getting something out there sooner than people are comfortable with. Obvious exceptions are when we are confident we cannot hit the timeline with even an MVP.