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“It’s Done” Is a Lie Without Shared Understanding

September 19, 2025

There’s a dangerous moment in most engineering teams.

It’s the moment someone says:
“It’s done.”

But it’s not in production.
There’s no test coverage.
The edge cases aren’t handled.
And the PM doesn’t agree on what “done” even means.

So… what’s really “done” here?

This is one of the biggest killers of engineering velocity—and most teams don’t even see it happening.

Shipping ≠ Finishing

Most teams confuse output with outcomes.

They ship the ticket.
Close the Jira.
Merge the PR.

And think the job is done.

But if the customer doesn’t get value—if the team doesn’t share a definition of success—you’re not done. You’re just in limbo.

We see it all the time:

🟢Features that technically work but don’t solve the user’s problem

🟢Tickets closed while bugs pile up in QA

🟢Endless handoffs between engineers, PMs, and designers who were never on the same page

That’s not progress. That’s churn.

Why Teams Get Stuck at 90%

Here’s the painful truth:
The last 10% of the work feels like 90% of the effort.

You’re debugging edge cases.
Chasing down feedback.
Fixing what was “done” last sprint.

And it all stems from one root issue:
Lack of shared understanding.

In the early days, I used to think docs were just nice-to-haves. Something you did after the code was written.

But I’ve learned the opposite is true:

Documentation isn’t a record of what was built.
It’s a tool for aligning everyone before you start.

Context Is the New Developer Multiplier

Tools are getting better. But alignment is getting harder.

Distributed teams.
Compressed timelines.
Fewer PMs. More AI-generated output.

The only thing that scales with this complexity?
Clear, contextual documentation.

Not a Notion doc that no one reads.
Not a requirements dump.

We’re talking about living docs:

🟢Framed around the why behind each feature

🟢Owned by the team

🟢Evolving as things change

Because when everyone shares the same map, finishing the work gets a whole lot easier.

How to Build Shared Understanding Before You Build Software

Here’s what works:

✅ Start with problems, not tickets.
Before you open Jira, write down what problem this is solving. What’s the user trying to do? Why now?

✅ Get buy-in on definitions.
What does “done” actually mean for this feature? What’s the success criteria? Agree before the build.

✅ Write for your future self.
If you come back in 6 months, will you know what this code was for? Your docs should make that obvious.

✅ Make docs part of the process, not a task.
The best teams I’ve worked with don’t “do docs”—they build shared context as they go. It’s embedded, not extra.

Don’t Let the Last 10% Derail the Sprint

If your team’s velocity drops after “delivery,” that’s a sign.

You don’t have a code problem.
You don’t have a QA problem.
You have a clarity problem.

Fix that, and the work doesn’t just ship—it sticks.

If your team’s “done” keeps turning into rework, then you’ll want to hear the full conversation I had with Seth Rosenbauer.

We got into how AI is exposing the cracks in product communication, why most docs fail, and what it really takes to build software that ships and succeeds.

🎧 Listen to the full episode on Product Driven—wherever you get your podcasts.

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