Re:Pushing devs for lower estimates is like asking a meteoro...
by k1t on Saturday October 21, 2023 @10:42AM
(#37967177)
I feel the sales analogy is quite general (hit a quarterly/annual quota) but the engineering example is talking about a specific piece of functionality.
If you asked the sales team about a specific deal and they said "We estimate a 70% chance of closing the deal. It'll bring in about $5m in ARR."
If management responded "Could you make that 80% and $7m ARR?" I think that would be a closer analogy.
Sure it might be possible to improve the odds of closing and jack the price up at the same time - just like it might be possible to complete that feature in half the time - but somebody will have to make some major changes or concessions somewhere to make it happen.
If you asked the sales team about a specific deal and they said "We estimate a 70% chance of closing the deal. It'll bring in about $5m in ARR."
If management responded "Could you make that 80% and $7m ARR?" I think that would be a closer analogy.
Sure it might be possible to improve the odds of closing and jack the price up at the same time - just like it might be possible to complete that feature in half the time - but somebody will have to make some major changes or concessions somewhere to make it happen.