The Focus Leak | Article 4: The Shadow Work
Engineers are hired to execute a prioritised roadmap, but they are often diverted by “unofficial” requests that arrive through the back door. While the “Alignment Trap” (Article 3) handles the weight of official meetings, Shadow Workdeals with the invisible drain of the “quick favor.”
The Problem: The Unprotected Port
In network security, an “Unprotected Port” is an open gateway that allows unauthorized traffic to enter a system. In a team, Direct Messages (DMs) act as these open ports.
When a stakeholder from Sales, Marketing, or Support bypasses the Product Manager and DMs an engineer directly, a System Breach occurs. The engineer is put in a position where they must choose between being “helpful” to a colleague or staying focused on the logic they were hired to build.
The Reality: If Sales can DM an Engineer, Sales is your PM
Every “quick fix” requested in a DM is a task that has not been weighed against the roadmap.
- The Request: “Hey, can you just change the color of this button for a demo in 10 minutes?”
- The Crash: The 20-Minute Warm-Up for the actual roadmap feature is instantly aborted. The mental model for the complex architecture is purged to handle a CSS tweak.
- The Leak: Because this work is “off-the-books,” it is never tracked. At the end of the sprint, it looks like the team was “slow,” but in reality, their energy was spent on Shadow Work.
The Reality: If anyone in the company can interrupt an engineer’s “Mental RAM,” the team’s priority is not being managed by a leader; it is being managed by whoever pings the loudest.
The Patch: The Team Firewall
To stop the leak, a Single Port of Entry must be established. The individual engineer’s focus must be protected by a “Firewall” that filters all incoming requests.
1. The “Public Channel” Protocol A strict rule is implemented: If a request is not in the public #ask-eng or #dev-triage channel, it does not exist. DMs for work-related requests are discouraged. By moving requests to a public forum, the “Shadow Work” is made visible to the leadership, and the “cost” of the distraction is seen by everyone.
2. The Designated “On-Call” Node Instead of every engineer being a target for pings, a rotation is established. One engineer is designated as the “Firewall” for the week. They handle all incoming questions, bugs, and “quick favors.” This allows the rest of the team to stay in their Maker Blocks without the fear of a “back-door” interruption.
3. The “Cost of Context” Education Stakeholders are educated on the 20-Minute Warm-Up. When a “quick favor” is asked, it is reframed not as a 5-minute task, but as a “System Reboot.” Stakeholders are taught that interrupting an engineer “mid-flight” is the most expensive way to get a task done.
Submit a Bug Report
A poll should be taken: How much of the team’s work this week arrived through DMs? If more than 10% of the tasks are “invisible,” the Shadow Work leak is sabotaging the roadmap.