Engineering Leadership: Decisions with Uncertainty | Playbook

Navigating Tech Choices: When to Commit, When to Pivot

Smart tech leaders recognize not all decisions carry the same weight, and knowing the difference can accelerate innovation.

• Some tech decisions are irreversible without notable cost and disruption.
• Other choices are easily reversed, allowing for rapid experimentation.
• Taking small, safe steps minimizes risk when facing uncertainty.

silicon Valley-Tech leaders are constantly making choices, but not all decisions are created equal.Selecting a database, choosing between a monolith and microservices, or committing to an event-driven architecture are examples of what some call “one-way door” decisions. These are choices that, once made, are expensive and disruptive to reverse, demanding deeper evaluation and broader alignment before committing.

Conversely, “two-way door” decisions are easily undone. Trying a new build tool, adjusting a retry policy in a service mesh, or testing a configuration change can all be quickly reversed. Treating these as two-way doors empowers leaders to move faster without overanalyzing decisions that don’t require extensive deliberation.

What distinguishes a one-way door from a two-way door is the cost and effort required to change course. Understanding this distinction is crucial for efficient innovation and risk management.

Did you know? – Jeff Bezos popularized the “one-way door” and “two-way door” analogy at Amazon, advocating for reversible decisions to foster agility.

The Power of the Smallest Safe step

When the path forward isn’t clear,it’s frequently enough wiser to take a small step rather than a large leap.Techniques like canary releases and gradual traffic shifts are commonly used to reduce risk by learning from real-world usage before fully committing to a change.

For example, rather of instantly shifting all traffic to a new Kubernetes deployment, a team can route only a small percentage initially to observe its behavior under a real load. This allows for early detection of issues and minimizes the impact of potential failures.

Canary releases and gradual traffic shifts are powerful tools for de-risking deployments and gathering valuable insights.

By embracing a mindset of iterative experimentation and prioritizing reversible decisions whenever possible, tech teams can navigate complexity and accelerate the pace of innovation.

Pro tip – Before making a significant tech choice, ask: “What would it take to undo this decision?” A clear answer helps categorize it as one-way or two-way.