When the Game Changes Mid-Sprint!

So, I was chatting with a Product Manager who has 14+ years of tech experience. Naturally, I asked him about the stuff that really matters: How do you prioritize when everything is on fire?

And then, we stumbled into this random football analogy:

Imagine you’re a Product Manager at a football manufacturing company. ?

There’s a major league coming up, and you’ve been told to whip up three features for the football:

• 2 Design Features (make it look pretty, basically)
• 1 Performance Feature ?? (you know, the one that actually makes the ball work)

You do what any logical PM would do and focus on the performance feature first. Because, duh, that’s what the players need, right?

But then—BAM—mid-sprint, someone throws you a curveball. A stakeholder waltzes in and says, “Hey, guess what? A big sponsor wants another design feature added. Yeah, it needs to happen now.”

Oh, and did I mention you’ve already made 15,000 balls? Yep. ??

So, what the hell do you do now? ??

Here’s the play-by-play:

• Impact Analysis: Is this new design feature actually going to matter for the league? Is it important to the sponsors? The fans? The players? Or are we just running around in circles?
• Weigh the Trade-offs: If you reprioritize, something else is going to slip. That’s the reality. Can you still optimize the performance feature, or is it going to the graveyard (aka backlog)?
• Be Real: Have the tough conversations with your team and stakeholders. Lay out the facts. No BS. Set clear expectations about what can—and cannot—be done.
• Stay Agile: Priorities change. All the time. Your job is to balance what the business needs, what the users want, and what the team can actually build. It’s messy, but that’s the game.

#ProductManagement #Prioritization #Agile #Football #StakeholderManagement #Leadership #WhatTheHeck