You’re Not Shipping Slowly Because of Engineering: Clearing the Decision Fog

Executive Indecision is the Real Bottleneck in Your Product Org

If your product team is moving slowly, and your first instinct is to blame engineering, you are probably looking in the wrong place. I get brought into companies when the roadmap is stuck, morale is low, and leadership is frustrated. The diagnosis almost always starts the same way: “We need better execution. We need stronger engineering. We need a new process.” But once I start talking to the teams, especially the PMs, a different story emerges. One with no villains, but a clear root cause: executive indecision.

Let’s break down what that really means, and why it creates what I call Decision Fog, the silent killer of velocity in scaling companies.

The Decision Fog: How It Starts

It usually begins with unclear priorities. Leadership wants to move fast, but without saying no to anything. Sales need their asks. Marketing wants campaigns supported. The CEO has a list of "just a few" quick wins. The board wants to see product innovation. So the roadmap becomes a consensus-driven quilt of everyone’s second-best ideas. This leads to PM paralysis. When everything is important, then nothing is. PMs are left trying to interpret vague goals, prioritize between unprioritized requests, and placate stakeholders who are used to escalation as a strategy. From there, engineering churn kicks in. Engineers stop trusting the roadmap. Rework increases. Teams don’t feel ownership. Some over-engineer to future-proof against shifting direction. Others quietly disengage.

And when the results stall? Stakeholder fire drills begin. Execs panic. New mandates appear. "Why is this taking so long?" Everyone scrambles. The fog thickens. And the cycle repeats. 

This isn’t a process problem. It’s a leadership problem.

Speed Comes from Clarity

The companies that ship fast don’t just have great engineers. They have clarity at the top. Clarity about which customer problems they are solving. Clarity about the bets they are making. Clarity about what not to build. That clarity creates space for teams to operate at speed. It removes ambiguity. It reduces rework, and it lets people focus their energy on delivering value, not interpreting shifting priorities.

I’ve worked with companies where shipping a feature took 9 months, but after making a few hard leadership decisions, they improved to consistently shipping meaningful value every 3–4 weeks. The difference wasn’t through an improved process. It was by having better alignment.

The Cost of Avoiding Tradeoffs

Here’s the hard truth: most exec teams don’t want to make tradeoffs. They want to say yes to everything. They want to hedge their bets. They want to avoid uncomfortable conversations with stakeholders. But indecision is not neutral. It’s a choice. And it’s an expensive one. Every feature you say “maybe” to has an opportunity cost. Every week spent debating is a week not learning. Every PM who doesn’t know what truly matters is a PM who can’t lead. I’ve seen companies lose quarters, even years because they wouldn’t make a call. They’d rather keep options open than commit. 

Product teams don’t need more options. They need focus.

Clearing the Fog: What to Do Instead

If you’re in the C-suite, and your teams are moving slowly, here are some things to consider and ask yourself:

1. Have we made clear, deliberate tradeoffs? If everything is a priority, your team is just guessing.

2. Does every initiative on the roadmap tie directly to a company bet? Is this a real, strategic bet and not a stakeholder request or a pet feature?

3. Can we say what we’re not doing, and why? This is often where the fog clears. Saying no forces clarity.

4. Do our PMs and engineers understand the “why” behind the work? If they don’t, you don’t have alignment. You have compliance.

5. Are we using the process as a crutch for indecision? More standups, more grooming, more tools. None of these fix a lack of leadership.

What It Looks Like to Get It Right

I recently worked with a growth-stage SaaS company that had hit a wall. Engineering velocity was down. Customer NPS had plateaued. Execs were frustrated. The initial theory? They needed a new delivery process. But in truth, they had six top priorities, and a roadmap filled with tactical asks. PMs were burnt out, Engineers were skeptical, and Morale was sliding.

Over a few strategy sessions, we got the executive team to make some hard calls. They picked two bets, redefined success metrics, and they gave the product team real ownership. Within six weeks, delivery picked up. Within one quarter, customer engagement rose. Within two quarters, the company was growing faster than before. 

They didn’t hire new engineers. They didn’t overhaul their tooling. They created clarity.

Final Thought: Your Job Is to Decide

If you’re a Founder/CEO, CPO, or head of product, your job isn’t to approve roadmaps or attend backlog grooming. Your job is to make the hard calls that no one else can. To trade off short-term wins for long-term leverage. To create clarity when everyone else wants certainty. To decide, so your teams can move. 

You’re not shipping slowly because of engineering. You’re shipping slowly because the product team is waiting for you to lead.