The Illusion of Speed
Why Moving Fast Can Slow You Down
It NEVER stops.
Daily stand-ups, sprint planning every two weeks, roadmap updates every quarter, bug triage every Monday, respond to that stakeholder’s “quick” request (it’s never quick), check in with the engineering team, tweak the Figma file (oh look, we need another revision), the CEO “drive-by,” argue over button placement, write documentation no one reads, debate whether this feature needs just one more setting, prep for the all-hands, jump into another cross-functional sync, review the NPS survey, push an update, and WTF, why is there another Jira ticket in the backlog?
None of it is big stuff. But together? It’s an absolutely relentless onslaught of paper cuts that drains focus and kills velocity.
I’d like to make a case for reducing.
Reduce the number of features. Reduce the scope creep. Reduce the never-ending backlog. Reduce the unplanned work. Reduce the distractions. But mostly, reduce the illusion that shipping all the time is somehow related to product health or customer value.
The more you add, the more it owns you. We need to make it stop.
Speed isn’t Progress or Value
In product management, speed (often referred to as velocity in product circles to make it sound more directional) is often confused with progress. Teams rush to start, parallelize work-streams, and optimize for output velocity — all under the assumption that getting more things moving means getting more things done. But much like a car spinning its wheels in mud, motion without traction, direction and impact isn’t progress.
The real secret to moving faster isn’t doing more at once — it’s finishing deliberately, focusing on the right constraints, and structuring work to minimize waste. Let’s break down why the conventional wisdom of “speed” often leads to bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and rework, and how a more deliberate approach leads to real acceleration.
Starting Fast vs. Finishing Faster
Most teams are eager to jump into execution. The excitement of launching something new creates a false sense of momentum. But product success isn’t about how quickly you start — it’s about how effectively you finish.
Instead of diving in headfirst, high-performing teams begin with the end in mind. They establish clear, overarching time box goals rather than filling up their calendars with arbitrary deadlines. They resist the urge to split up every task for maximum parallelization and instead serialize work where needed to avoid dependencies piling up later.
By doing this, they set the conditions for flow, ensuring that once work starts, it moves through the pipeline smoothly, rather than stalling in handoff purgatory. Too many teams are focused on building an efficient workflow right out of the gate. Efficiences are built on understanding. You shouldn’t even be thinking of optimizing or automating until you have established flow.
Why Less Communication Means More Drag
There’s a common misconception that keeping teams at full capacity — heads down, fully booked, no wasted time — means optimal efficiency. But when teams operate at 100% utilization, there’s no space to absorb the unexpected.
High-performing teams recognize that communication isn’t waste — it’s capacity for adaptation. They plan for small buffers that allow time for responding to feedback, unexpected learning, and refining their approach as they go. They embrace quiet, focused time punctuated by deep collaboration rather than nonstop churn.
When work is distributed in a way that allows for flow, rather than forcing everything into a constant sprint, teams experience fewer bottlenecks and get to the finish line faster.
Why High Work-in-Progress Slows You Down
It’s tempting to believe that the more work we juggle at once, the faster we’ll get things done. In reality, high work-in-progress (WIP) leads to fragmentation, lack of focus, and slower completion times.
The best teams limit WIP deliberately, working in smaller, more manageable batches rather than trying to push everything forward simultaneously. This reduces cognitive switching costs, minimizes dependencies, and creates more predictable delivery timelines.
The same applies to organizational roles. Highly specialized teams may seem efficient, but they create single points of failure and bottlenecks. Instead, T-shaped teams. Generalists in everything, but really skilled in one or two things. When individuals have deep expertise but can flex across responsibilities they ensure that progress isn’t blocked by rigid handoffs.
Avoiding the Trap of “Ship and Move On”
One of the biggest misconceptions about speed is that shipping fast means moving on fast. But launching without time for iteration leads to long-term inefficiency.
Great teams bake in time for refinement and response to feedback. They don’t treat refactoring as a separate, occasional effort — they make it part of their regular cadence. They focus on quality from the start rather than cutting corners and promising to fix things later.
This ensures that product debt doesn’t accumulate, making future changes and iterations exponentially harder. By shipping deliberately and keeping an eye on long-term scalability, teams set themselves up for sustainable velocity rather than short bursts of speed followed by painful slowdowns.
Collaboration Over Silos
A common trap in product development is optimizing for individual speed rather than team effectiveness. Teams working in silos — each member assigned their own tasks with minimal overlap — might feel like they’re moving fast, but they create hidden inefficiencies that compound over time.
High-performing teams prioritize team goals over individual assignments. They create an environment where swarming on blockers is the norm, rather than having team members struggle in isolation. Instead of “throwing new people into the fray” and hoping they keep up, they focus on careful, structured onboarding to ensure long-term success.
Rather than treating design and development as sequential stages, they embrace participatory design, UX/dev pairing, and embedded ops. This collaborative approach reduces misalignment, speeds up decision-making, and minimizes the need for rework later.
From Velocity to Impact
Many product leaders focus on output velocity. Either via the number of tasks completed, the number of releases pushed. These metrics are false idols. True speed isn’t measured by how much you build — it’s measured by the impact (and the long term health) of what you build.
This means shifting focus from raw feature production to problem-solving. Instead of designing solutions in isolation and then reviewing with stakeholders, great teams involve them from the beginning. Instead of rushing to deliver and then navigating pushback, they partner with end-users, internal stakeholders, and cross-functional teams throughout the process.
The result? Better products, fewer surprises, and true acceleration — not just in output, but in outcomes.
Rethinking Speed in Product Leadership
Moving fast is a mindset — but not in the way people think. It’s not about working harder, starting sooner, or loading teams up with more tasks. It’s about:
- Finishing what you start before taking on more
- Creating space for iteration and adaptation
- Reducing WIP to increase flow
- Focusing on team effectiveness rather than individual speed
- Optimizing for long-term impact, not just short-term delivery
The teams that truly move fast aren’t the ones constantly in motion. They’re the ones that design for sustained, scalable momentum — and that’s the real key to product velocity.
