The manager who stopped saying yes
Priya Raman · engineering manager · a payments company, team of 9 · 6 months, no workshop
2 of 2
planned projects shipped this quarter
1
shared list for requests from other teams
0
engineers lost since we started
Client
Priya Raman, engineering manager
Company
Payments company, team of 9
Length
6 months
Workshop
None, sessions by video
The situation
Priya’s team said yes to every request from sales and support. The roadmap slipped every quarter, and her best engineer was quietly looking for a new job.
What we worked on
Saying no
A short, kind script for turning down work, and a weekly list of what the team won’t do.
Feedback
Saying the small things the same week, starting with the engineer who was about to leave.
Your energy
Moving her own meetings so she had two mornings a week to think.
How it went
Months one and two
Priya kept a week-long log of every request that reached her team. Most of them were reasonable, and none of them were planned. We wrote a short, kind way to say no, and a weekly list of what the team would not do.
The midpoint
Her best engineer had stopped speaking up in planning. Priya gave her the feedback she had been saving for months, the same week it happened, and asked what would make her stay. The answer was a squad of her own.
By month six
Requests from sales and support go through one shared list that Priya reviews on Fridays. The team shipped both planned projects, and Priya protects two mornings a week for thinking.
What changed
The team shipped both of its planned projects for the quarter.
Requests from other teams now go through one shared list.
The engineer who was leaving stayed, and now leads a squad.
In Priya’s words
What they said on our first call, and what they said when we finished.
On our first call
“My team says yes to everyone, so nothing we actually planned ships on time.”
Six months later
“I say no twice a week now, kindly. The team finally finishes what it starts.”
Priya Raman
Engineering manager · payments company, team of 9
