Trust the team know the details 🥸

Happy Friday!

There is an interesting quirk I've observed across the various companies and clients I've worked with. Most folks assume that if something were serious, someone would speak up.

Take a typical team working in sprints or iterations, or whatever you prefer to call them. Most folks assume that if there is a real blocker, the team will bring it up there and then escalate to their leader if it is out of their hands.

How about a feature being built? Folks assume that if the feature wasn't truly valuable, someone would point it out, and it wouldn't be prioritized.

For security? Someone would point out if what you're doing is insecure and exposes the company to risk. Surely.

How about for compliance with the law? Certainly right? Someone would stop you. Right?

I think for every example you can think of where folks do actually speak up, you can think of just as many or more where they don't, or worse, where there isn't really a time and place for it to happen.

The team tries to handle their issues quietly, even if it's something you wish they told you. Product managers prioritize features, hoping someone else validated their value. Teams build things insecurely because it's the obvious way to get it done, and surely legal was consulted before building that new thing.

The reality is that assuming someone would speak up if there is a serious issue is dangerous at best.

Every single project and client engagement I've been on has had at least one moment when I caught a serious issue that fell into this trap. Was it my responsibility to know the ins and outs of COPPA, CCPA, TCPA, and other laws? No. I took it upon myself to understand them regardless, and I caught issues before it was too late. Was it my job to read license agreements and vendor contracts before engaging with them? Nope. Did I catch onerous data-sharing or risk reversals? Yep. Was it my job to audit open-source tools for telemetry or non-standard licenses? Nope. Did I catch popular tools collecting data under the covers? Yep.

There are so many things that can happen in a software project. It is honestly overwhelming, but hoping other people speak up isn't a strategy I lean on. I believe it is vital to trust my team but know the details.

In my experience, people are more likely to comment on your new shoes than to speak up about an issue, and that's no way to manage risk.

What do you think? Have you caught issues that weren't technically your responsibility to catch? Found serious issues nobody brought up because everyone thought someone else would? Forward this to someone who might need to stop waiting for the call that something is wrong.

Sincerely,

Ryan

PS: Got a similar situation you want to talk through? Give me a call.