Report
Autopsy #001 — Shipping got heavier without obvious failure
Published: November 15, 2024
Symptom
Small changes started taking weeks instead of days.
Context
- Team size: 7
- Stage: Post-seed SaaS
- Stack: React, Node, AWS
- Domain: B2B platform
What they thought the problem was
Technical debt.
What the autopsy found
- →Decision ownership became implicit
- →Review cycles replaced decisions
- →Risk avoidance increased without being acknowledged
Early warning signs they missed
- →"Let's sync on this" replaced clear ownership
- →Only one engineer felt safe making changes
- →Meetings increased, outcomes didn't
Outcome
Autopsy proceeded.