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Stop Starting Start Finishing
Product / Principles
Limit work in progress. Finish what you start before starting more.
The Idea
From kanban. A team with fifteen half-done things ships less than one with three things being finished. WIP limits force prioritisation and surface bottlenecks.
Why It Matters
- Partially-done work has no value. Done work does.
- Context switching eats productivity.
- High WIP hides problems — everything looks busy, nothing ships.
How to Apply
- Set an explicit WIP limit per person and per team.
- When the limit is hit, no new work starts until something finishes.
- When work stalls, ask why — that's where the real constraint lives.
The Trap
Treating the WIP limit as advisory. The limit only works when it's enforced. "We'll break it just this once" becomes the new normal.
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