Bring Your Business Appetite to the Planning Table
What if every R&D project started with the business’ desired time and cost as key design constraints—just as central as features, scale, and architecture?
Too often, planning starts with a familiar dance: the business defines a goal, asks developers for an estimate, and then pushes back when the timeline doesn’t align with expectations. This cycle wastes time, creates tension, and rarely delivers the best outcomes.
The construction of the Empire State Building, completed ahead of schedule and under budget during the Great Depression, took another path. Clear business and timeline goals shaped the plans literally from the ground up, driving decisions like material selection, architecture, and workforce planning.
Inspired by successful historical projects like the Empire State Building and Basecamp’s Shape Up methodology, I’ve learned to start with business appetite: a clear statement of how much time and money the business is willing to invest. This approach fosters collaboration and helps solutions align with both technical constraints and business priorities.
Here’s how I’ve adopted and evolved this approach over the years.
1. Define Business Appetite in Real Numbers
Business appetite is the budget for solving a problem, measured in weeks of work by a small team. Shape Up, for example, canonically defines “small batch” projects as 1-2 weeks for 2-3 people and “big batch” projects as 6 weeks. These timeframes convert easily into costs—numbers your finance team and stakeholders can evaluate.
Avoid abstract metrics like story points or t-shirt sizes for business appetite. Real-world numbers connect directly to opportunity costs, making it easier to align R&D with business goals.
2. Focus on Solving the Problem
The business appetite is money to solve a problem, not a license to build features. This broad mindset encourages teams to consider whether buying off-the-shelf solutions, reusing existing tools, scaling back scope, or even removing existing functionality could achieve the desired outcome.
3. Collaborate and Negotiate
A clearly stated appetite sparks collaboration. Think of it as a starting point for a conversation, not a fixed directive. Teams can explore trade-offs: investing more for increased functionality, reducing scope to meet constraints, or spending extra on external resources to save time.
Ultimately, the collaborative planning leads to clear communication. Stakeholders need to understand what to expect, why the plan makes sense, and how it delivers value. When timelines and deliverables feel credible, trust and enthusiasm grow, even if scope has been reduced.
4. Even Experiments Have Appetites
Even high-risk experiments benefit from defined appetites. Aligning the business and experimenters on size and expectations clarifies risk and reduces unnecessary stress. This approach avoids the extremes of anxiety about sudden cancellation or unchecked optimism that funding will last until results emerge.
5. Break Up Big Projects
Large projects often exceed the typical business appetite. Instead of stretching timelines, break them into smaller, achievable pieces, and redefine the appetite accordingly.
Parallel slices: Assign different teams vertical slices of the project to tackle simultaneously.
Sequential steps: Set a long-term north star, but focus on shorter deliverables that provide value incrementally. Each step earns its continuation by delivering tangible results.
6. Recognize Appetite Isn’t Infinite
Sometimes a project feels too important to fail. But no appetite is truly unlimited. Mismanaging scope or timelines can lead to churned customers, lost trust, or even business pivots.
Estimate a realistic maximum investment, and push for solutions that fit within those constraints. Early communication about risks and trade-offs can avoid last-minute crises.
Closing Thoughts
The Empire State Building’s success reminds us that clear appetites can guide both what gets built and how it gets done. Whether you’re tackling skyscrapers or software, starting with clear constraints helps align creativity and execution.
Shifting to a business appetite approach has been effective in my teams. It prioritizes collaboration, transparency, and focus, enabling us to deliver value more predictably and efficiently.
Have you tried integrating business appetite into your planning? What worked, and what didn’t? I’d love to learn from your experiences.
