Part 7 · 1 chapters · ~8 min
Working with Engineering and Design
The trio in practice, involving engineers in discovery, estimates as ranges with assumptions, technical debt and platform work on the roadmap, design reviews, handling scope changes mid-build, and the engineer's side of a healthy partnership.
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A healthy trio
| practice | what it looks like |
|---|---|
| engineers in discovery | the tech lead joins interviews and sees the problem; spikes answer feasibility early |
| estimates as ranges | "3-6 weeks, assuming the ledger API exposes settled balances; 8+ if it does not" |
| debt on the roadmap | reliability and debt work stated in outcome terms (fewer incidents, faster delivery), with protected capacity |
| scope changes | new information changes scope explicitly: what is added, what is dropped, what moves |
| shared rituals | weekly trio review of metrics, discovery findings and delivery risks |
From the engineer's side: bring options with costs ("v1 in two weeks without email copies; full scope in five"), surface risks early, and ask what outcome a request serves. That is what PMs mean when they call an engineer "product-minded".