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ship-decisions

Binary go/no-go shipping decisions using reversibility analysis (one-way vs two-way doors) and technical debt trade-offs. Use when user asks 'should we ship this now,' 'ready to ship,' 'one-way door,' 'two-way door,' or 'tech debt vs shipping.' For defining craft levels and deciding what to polish vs defer, see quality-speed. This is the ship decision methodology.

  • Area: Strategy
  • Category: product management
  • Level: beginner
  • Input: conversation
  • Output: document
  • Setup: none
  • Roles: CEO / Founder, Product Manager

Binary go/no-go shipping decisions using reversibility analysis (one-way vs two-way doors) and technical debt trade-offs.

How you ask

  • “Should we ship this feature or iterate more?”
  • “Is this a one-way door or two-way door decision?”
  • “Balance the technical debt against shipping speed”
  • “Help me decide: ready to ship or needs more work?”

Inputs

  • decision — The call to be made
  • deadline — When the decision stops being useful
  • reversibility — How costly the decision is to undo — reversible, costly-to-reverse, or irreversible. Raises the evidence bar and the required sign-off as it worsens. (reversible | costly-to-reverse | irreversible)
  • artifact — Thing being assessed for readiness to ship

Outputs

  • hold-decision (markdown)
  • readiness-brief (markdown)
  • ship-decision (markdown)
  • {company.knowledge-base.product}/ship-decisions-{YYYY-MM-DD}.md