Set the suggestion cost

I used to believe in business plans… Back when we were working on Flagback, it was our way to align understanding and centralize the information.

Everyone came up with ideas but only I, as document owner…, was doing the research and the updates. At the time, I didn’t see a problem with this.

But, this changed when I heard a project manager on a side project say:

If you suggest something, you own it. Better be able to handle it.

Ideas being just ideas, I realized that, without a suggestion cost for new ideas, there’s no commitment and very little filtering being done.

It’s easy to throw ideas around when you don’t have to do the work but, chances are, if you’re not willing to work on an idea, you shouldn’t be suggesting it.

I spent way too much time keeping track of ideas we never did… it killed momentum. Lesson learned.