Allocating Capacity (+1)
Allocating Capacity
A healthy allocation for most product teams:
- 70% planned features: Roadmap items that advance strategic goals
- 20% technical health: Tech debt, reliability, performance, developer experience
- 10% unplanned: Buffer for urgent issues, quick wins, and requests from other teams
Capacity vs Ambition
- If roadmap commitments exceed capacity, something must give
- Do not solve capacity problems by pretending people can do more -- solve by cutting scope
- When adding to the roadmap, always ask: "What comes off?"