101 Design Ingredients to Solve Big Tech Problems

Ingredient 34.

Timebox It

Challenge people to make decisions in meetings.

“The ultimate inspiration is the deadline.” —Nolan Bushnell, engineer, entrepreneur, and founder of Atari

The Problem

Teams spend meeting after meeting discussing ideas without making any decisions.

The Solution

Frame a lack of time as a challenge, and coach teams to do just enough to proceed to the next stage. Get the adrenaline and creative juices flowing.

• Set meaningful objectives.^[90] Be clear what needs to be achieved in the time you have. You can ask individual team members to describe out loud what they think they are supposed to be doing so there is no confusion.