When the people-who-know aren't in the planning room

When the people-who-know aren’t in the planning room - You’ve got a problem.

A company decides to expand into enterprise.

The PM who’s been talking to enterprise customers for 3 years? Not in the planning meetings.

The designer who mapped the entire enterprise journey? Finds out in the all-hands.

The tech lead who knows the infrastructure constraints? Asked to estimate work for a plan already sold to the board.

This isn’t a scheduling problem. It’s a power problem.

There’s a pattern here, when your most experienced people are:

• Informed after decisions are made
• Asked for estimates, not strategic input
• Expected to “make it work” regardless of feasibility

You’re choosing control over competence.

In the short term, this feels like speed. In the long term, you rebuild everything twice.

What do healthy organizations do? They pull in the people with the most context before making commitments. Not after.

In the end, the choice isn’t between speed and quality. It’s between sustainable velocity and expensive thrash.

If your most experienced people learn about strategy from company-wide announcements, that’s your early warning sign.