A PM and engineering cut decision

A cut conversation that starts as a stand-up argument ends as a date nobody believes. Write the options, the date each one protects, and the assumption that would flip your recommendation.

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The train is too full. You both know. The conversation you are about to have in stand-up will generate heat and a compromise neither of you can explain tomorrow. Write the cut first. Use the meeting only if the writing produces a real disagreement about the frame.

This is the internal twin of telling a client about a scope change. There may be no client on this thread. There is still a date, and someone will repeat it.

Close the list before you argue

Three options is enough. Each one names what drops and what that protects.

  • Drop the share flow. Billing stays on the 12th.
  • Keep share, move the date. Name the date.
  • Keep both, cut polish on search. Name who feels that.

Ask for the decision with a recommendation and a disconfirmer. "I recommend dropping share. I would flip if you know a customer demo that cannot be done without it." The disconfirmer is where the other person's knowledge belongs. Without it, the note is a speech.

If you cannot close the list, you are not deciding yet. You are exploring, and exploring in a stand-up with a clock is how you pick the cut that is easiest to say out loud.

Split the customer sentence from the engineering date

The PM owns what can be said outside the team. The engineer owns a date they will still mean on the 11th. A cut that protects a date by inventing a customer sentence is a later incident. A cut that protects a sentence by inventing a date is a later slip note.

Write both in the same briefing, in different lines. "Customer-facing: search and billing on the 12th, share in the next train. Engineering date I will keep: the 12th, if share is out."

State the assumption under the date. "This assumes the billing vendor's sandbox matches production." If that is wrong, the cut you are fighting about is the wrong cut.

Default, then stop talking

"If we have not closed this by 16:00 UTC I will take option one and write the customer sentence that way." A default is how you avoid a second stand-up about the same list.

You do not need a shared product tool to send this. If the other person has an account, you need an accepted contact. If they do not, they get email and a page. You approve the words. There are no attachments; link the board if you must, and keep the options in the brief.

A nickname you use for a stakeholder does not belong in a note the other side may forward. Use the name the customer already knows.

If the argument is already in a session, connect your assistant and have it write the three options without the speech.

Frequently asked questions

How should a PM and an engineer decide what to cut?
Write a closed list of cuts, what date or quality bar each one protects, and a recommendation with the fact that would change it. Then say what you will ship if nobody answers by a dated hour. A stand-up argument is how both sides leave thinking they won.
Who should send the note?
Whoever already has the options in their head. If that is the engineer, the PM still owns the customer-facing sentence. If that is the PM, the engineer still owns the date they will keep. The note should make both of those visible.
What if we disagree about the estimate?
Label it as an estimate and name the assumption it sits on. Arguing about a number that was never marked as a guess is how a cut meeting becomes a blame meeting.