The “NO” portfolio
Written by Adrian Maharaj
(Views mine, not Google’s.)
Why subtraction works
Humans overlook subtraction as a path to improvement (Nature, 2021). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03380-y
Too much Work in Progress (WIP) slows everything (Little’s Law). https://www.isye.gatech.edu/~spyros/courses/IE7201/Fall-13/Little-OR-paper.pdf
Metrics invite gaming when they become targets (Goodhart’s Law). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7901608/
Design
Quarterly cuts: 3 initiatives, 1 metric, 1 meeting series.
Capacity line: “Freed X eng weeks / Y marketing cycles.”
Rules: anything cut needs an owner and a sunset plan (or a clear “not now”).
Governance
Publish a Stop Doing log in the monthly CEO note.
Tie portfolio decisions to long term drivers; if it doesn’t move a driver, it’s a candidate to cut.
Result
Your org sees that strategy is choosing, not piling on.
