Yesterday I tried to prioritise our projects for Q4 2026. I failed.
In my previous post, I wrote about deliberately choosing projects. Sometimes I say yes because a project is important. Sometimes because it's a growth opportunity for someone on the team. And sometimes, honestly, because regulations leave us no choice.
But the really big projects for the whole organisation work differently. They happen without discussion with the planned team, unfortunately, and the work lands on top of everything else.
I'm seeing the consequences now. Quality starts to decrease. People are less satisfied with what they deliver. And I can feel the team trying to figure out their role and how to make everything fit.
That's not a motivation problem. It's a capacity problem.
We can prioritise, postpone and redistribute. But you cannot solve a capacity problem with better prioritisation forever. If the work grows and the team doesn't, something has to give.
So the question I'm asking myself is not only "What should we say no to?" It's also: "When we say yes, what capacity needs to come with that yes?"
I don't have the answer yet. But I'm learning that if I don't make the trade-off visible, the team pays for it quietly.
How do you make capacity visible when a big project lands on your team without anyone really deciding it?
This is part of my "100 Days of Year One" series. Follow along as I share what I've learned in my first year as Head of Data and Cloud.