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I've done this trick fairly often. Like many "tricks" in people management, it works until people figure it out, so you have to be a little careful with it. Nob

I've done this trick fairly often. Like many "tricks" in people management, it works until people figure it out, so you have to be a little careful with it. Nobody likes to feel manipulated. However, I've found that being really open and collaborative with people helps mitigate the manipulation factor by a significant margin. In other words, you get them to agree that the project is not the highest priority or the highest ROI thing to be working on. You ask: "Given the list of W, X, Y, and Z, and keeping in mind that we only have enough resources to tackle two of these at a time, do you think X is the most important?" and they say "Well, X would be cool but yeah, W and Z would give us the most ROI, so let's hold off on X and Y until we have more time and resources." The key is to be (or appear) really genuine with this. If it's obvious that you're kicking the can down the road because you don't want to do it, you won't win any friends or influence people. But if you can approach it with "I'd love to do X but the realities of our situation mean that we can't" in an authentic way, then you stand a much greater chance of having both sides walk away with a sense of accomplishment. They feel heard and valued, and you don't have to waste resources on something you don't think is a good idea. If you can't be authentic about that, then I would just go the truthful route of "This isn't going to happen" and try and just be honest about the realities of the situation. They might feel hurt and rejected, but it's better than them feeling manipulated, IMO.

lostcolony 5y ago
I take it one further. "Okay, let's sit down together and write out a story that fully defines what you're asking me to do". Half the time they won't bother. -Your- effort is free, but -their- effort has a cost. The other half of the time they will, because they care about it, and so it goes into the backlog, and they get to see what stuff takes precedence (and it's a legitimately good faith effort on my part to see it ranked appropriately, and that they feel informed as to what is coming ahead of it and why).
- kfarr 5y ago
  Absolutely, I love this technique when the ask is clearly more complicated than they realize. I say let's schedule an hour to write out a spec, my calendar is open. Similar technique is to say yes I can do that but let's do it together on a screen share call and you can guide me through it. It's always a positive outcome -- either they withdraw the request or we collaborate positively together to make it happen and appropriately prioritize.
- ianmcgowan 5y ago
  Aka "The Wally Reflector". https://dilbert.com/strip/2005-07-10 https://dilbert.com/strip/2005-07-10 Even a small task is usually enough to filter out requests where the requestor is basically trying to move a task from their list to your list..
  - muttled 5y ago
    Careful about saying yes early on, though. Even if they disappear, that won't stop them from telling everyone else that it's now your job.
    - lostcolony 5y ago
      Nothing stops them from telling others that regardless of what you say. You just make sure that all communication is properly caveated so you have something to point to should it all hit the fan.
AnimalMuppet 5y ago
In a sane situation, you usually have a "product manager" or someone who owns the feature set and the priorities. (If you don't, if the engineers have to answer to multiple people with conflicting desires and demands, that's the first problem.) But if you have a product manager (and they're doing their job), then all you have to do is tell them the truth. Let them figure out which features are priority, or will lead to the most revenue, or whatever. That's their job. I was in an Extreme Programming estimating session one time. A particular story came up for our consideration, and several people groaned. Nobody wanted us to do the story, because it was going to be a bear to implement. I said "Just tell them the truth. They'll figure out why this is a bad idea." We estimated six months, and they decided that they didn't want the feature at that price.
Woodi 5y ago
> Like many "tricks" in people management, it works until people figure it out [...] "Good strategy works even when you know it's coming" - something like this from "Sanctuary for all" :) One example of that was mentioned here few times: features need money. And resources and time. But sometimes features can be crammed into project without bigger investment - just talk to devs and and often they will find a way. Sometimes it works perfectly, when overall architecture is good or extendable. And often it make total mess in codebase. But cost nothing ! ;)

lostcolony 5y ago

I take it one further. "Okay, let's sit down together and write out a story that fully defines what you're asking me to do". Half the time they won't bother. -Your- effort is free, but -their- effort has a cost. The other half of the time they will, because they care about it, and so it goes into the backlog, and they get to see what stuff takes precedence (and it's a legitimately good faith effort on my part to see it ranked appropriately, and that they feel informed as to what is coming ahead of it and why).

kfarr 5y ago
Absolutely, I love this technique when the ask is clearly more complicated than they realize. I say let's schedule an hour to write out a spec, my calendar is open. Similar technique is to say yes I can do that but let's do it together on a screen share call and you can guide me through it. It's always a positive outcome -- either they withdraw the request or we collaborate positively together to make it happen and appropriately prioritize.
ianmcgowan 5y ago
Aka "The Wally Reflector". https://dilbert.com/strip/2005-07-10 https://dilbert.com/strip/2005-07-10 Even a small task is usually enough to filter out requests where the requestor is basically trying to move a task from their list to your list..
- muttled 5y ago
  Careful about saying yes early on, though. Even if they disappear, that won't stop them from telling everyone else that it's now your job.
  - lostcolony 5y ago
    Nothing stops them from telling others that regardless of what you say. You just make sure that all communication is properly caveated so you have something to point to should it all hit the fan.

AnimalMuppet 5y ago

In a sane situation, you usually have a "product manager" or someone who owns the feature set and the priorities. (If you don't, if the engineers have to answer to multiple people with conflicting desires and demands, that's the first problem.) But if you have a product manager (and they're doing their job), then all you have to do is tell them the truth. Let them figure out which features are priority, or will lead to the most revenue, or whatever. That's their job. I was in an Extreme Programming estimating session one time. A particular story came up for our consideration, and several people groaned. Nobody wanted us to do the story, because it was going to be a bear to implement. I said "Just tell them the truth. They'll figure out why this is a bad idea." We estimated six months, and they decided that they didn't want the feature at that price.

Woodi 5y ago

> Like many "tricks" in people management, it works until people figure it out [...] "Good strategy works even when you know it's coming" - something like this from "Sanctuary for all" :) One example of that was mentioned here few times: features need money. And resources and time. But sometimes features can be crammed into project without bigger investment - just talk to devs and and often they will find a way. Sometimes it works perfectly, when overall architecture is good or extendable. And often it make total mess in codebase. But cost nothing ! ;)