Last week, I talked about selective clairvoyance. Some people said it was too extreme. That roadmaps don't actually happen like that.
Fine.
Let me now tell you a story. I can neither confirm nor deny this actually happened.
Roadmap session in progress.
Everyone's excited about the new AI features. The potential of it all. Imagine what people will do with this thing. People are nodding. They're taking notes and are already getting giddy about shipping this thing.
And I'm sitting there like: "What about keyboard navigation?"
Blank stares. Oh right, yeah, we'll... we'll get to that.
I know we'll never get to that.
I just know that six months later, support tickets will start to roll in. Of course it'll be a total surprise! People who can't use a mouse also want to use this shiny new thing.
Who could have seen this coming? Me. I saw it. I literally said it in the meeting.
"We'll think about it next sprint."
Now, I know, come next sprint, nothing will happen. It'll be a variation of "actually, we need to focus on the new feature first."
And before the new feature ships, more tickets will have come in.
"Why didn't anyone see this coming? Why didn't anyone raise this earlier?"
I did! I have been raising it. I have gotten tired of raising it.
I have gotten tired of being the only person who remembers I did raise it too. Tired of having the same conversation while everyone acts like it's the first time they're hearing it.
It's exhausting being the only one who remembers.