Thread by @johncutlefish

As many of us approach quarterly planning, I want to share some tips on making it “easier”...

1/5 First, if q planning is hard, start doing it more often. Every six weeks for example. Every two weeks...

2/5 ”That’ll never work! Too often!” ... then consider what you can do individually. Make sure your backlog/roadmap/whatever is always tight. Make it less painful for yourself. Set a good example. Make it all public/transparent.

3/5 - If magically all of your “projects” take exactly a quarter, and are magically completed the last days of the quarter... then add forcing functions to be learning/delivering far more frequently. Quarterly batches are evil.

4/5 measure the level of disruption and the amount of “new stuff” that you’ve never heard of. Lots? See #1 and #2 above.

Is there a rat race to secure shared teams? This should never be news. Have an always correct force ranked queue and flag dependencies ... weeks in advance.

5/5... in short, very few companies should be on a 90 day sprint. It is artificial. It is weird. You’re doing it right if there is just a light amount of course correction. If not? Don’t “fix” it through a more perfect 90 day sprint. Change tactics.