mediumScenarioBehaviouralMidSeniorStaff
Two weeks before launch, engineering tells you the feature needs six more weeks. What do you do?
6 min readUpdated 2026-08-15
Answer
Short answer
Find out what the six weeks is made of before negotiating anything, then choose between cutting scope, splitting the release, launching to a limited cohort and moving the date — and tell everyone who depends on the date the same day you know.
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Likely follow-ups
- Marketing has already bought advertising for the original date. Does that change your answer?
- The lead engineer says the six weeks is technical debt cleanup, not the feature. Now what?
- How do you stop this from being discovered two weeks out next time?
- What would you cut if the deadline were a regulatory one that cannot move?
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