Finishing Work Doesn't Mean It's Done (opens in new tab)

In 2018, Basecamp published a detailed account of how their team had been quietly losing speed on their Hey email product during early development. The culprit wasn’t scope creep or unclear requirements. It was something subtler: a growing pile of work that was technically complete but hadn’t been fully closed out. Features that worked but hadn’t been documented. Decisions that had been made but not communicated. Tasks that were marked done in the project tracker but still occupied mental spa...