A guerilla guide to surviving large bets (aka large projects)

Missing or shallow strategy?

Fill the strategy gap yourself

I like to call this “occupying the space”.

1. Develop your own coherent strategy; 2. Be okay if the Bet pretends they came up with it

Get a senior technical IC involved (early)

Senior technical ICs tend not to accept missing/shallow product strategy

Open-ended requests?

Feature requests, not team requests

Commit to features or capabilities, not teams or individuals

Propose your own roadmap

This is another example of “occupying the space”.

Propose a coherent roadmap to pre-empt open-ended requests

Difficult collaboration?

Actively build informal relationships

Informal relationships can improve formal interactions

Assign a dedicated liaison

Assign the best person who’s also good at social dynamics as your dedicated liaison