Switching tasks burns time in ramp-up. Cue unrealistic expectations and disappointment, especially if multiple stakeholders are asking for switches but aren't aware of each other
Disproof
An established system for deciding any change to in-flight work, and a way of communicating it
Consequences
If switching happens faster than the actual time cost of switching (invariably at least half a week), you get this lovely thing we call ‘thrashing’, where literally nothing gets done
People assuming that a one week detour means a one week delay, undercompensate their own scheduling. Dependencies get fouled up, marketing pushes get misaligned, a whole bunch of nasty ensues
A one-off won’t kill you, but repeats will torch internal and eventually customer trust
As per usual, either move slow and die, or burn everyone out trying to maintain speed
Causes
People who, in 202X, still make it part of their personality to not understand how engineering works whilst working at a product company and somehow still seem have jobs
When product teams have some kind of prioritisation cadence with individual departments, where someone weak-willed gets cornered by someone on a warpath
If you’re in the business of making switches that you know to be wrong but aren’t skillfully managing and preventing, it’s a psychological safety and skill issue. Effectively, you’re prioritising the shoutiest, but in-flight
Approaches
Changing direction before you hit ‘done’ can make sense if the priorities of the business have drastically changed
People should only be mad if this happens for a bad/avoidable reason
But if the original target is no longer viable, don’t waste more time on it
If the diversion is only meant to be temporary, be extremely quantified about the cost of stopping, contextualising elsewhere, and then re-contextualising on the existing problem. This is often forgotten by anyone abstracted away from building (investors, non-product teams, sufficiently disconnected leadership)
Train people in charge of defending prioritization to not buckle like wet cardboard, and also how to not piss people off when saying no