Early in my career I was always excited about the things I was building.

I had ideas constantly. I wanted to create them, put them out there and see if they actually worked. I wanted to see something real come out of the work we were doing.

At the time I was working in a small company, building products from scratch. Everything was new. Everything felt possible.

Part of that energy came from excitement and the desire to contribute. But part of it was also something else: the fear that simple things might look incomplete to customers.

So the instinct was always the same. Add more. Build more. Improve more.

And often do it before anyone even asked for it.

Over time, and especially after moving to a larger and more structured product organization, I started seeing the other side of that mindset.

Building things that no one really needed.

The cost of building the wrong things

In most companies there is already a long list of things customers are asking for.

There are bugs to fix, improvements to make, features customers are waiting for. And there is never enough time to do all of them.

So why spend months building something no one is asking for?

In most companies, the real problem is not finding things to build.
It’s deciding what not to build.

This is partly a prioritization problem, but it is also a question of respect for the work that engineering teams put into building products.

Engineers should see the impact of what they build. They should see customers using it, benefiting from it, relying on it.

I have seen many teams invest months building large and complex solutions only to later discover that they were too expensive to maintain or simply not used.

Sometimes this happens because product research was not strong enough. But often the reason is simpler.

The world changes.

Requirements change. The domain evolves. Customer needs shift.

And if it takes a year to deliver something, the original assumptions may no longer hold by the time the solution is ready.

The smartest teams understand this and are willing to stop investing in something that no longer makes sense.

Less mature organizations often do the opposite. They stick to an outdated decision and keep investing simply because the decision was already made.

The most expensive product decisions are often the ones we refuse to revisit.

Why waiting is difficult

Despite this, waiting is one of the hardest decisions for product teams.

Technology hype plays a big role. When a new trend appears, everything suddenly feels urgent.

AI is a recent example. In some situations I have seen strong pressure from leadership to explore and plan initiatives that, based on research and customer signals, were not actually a priority.

Sometimes teams also struggle with waiting because they feel the need to show progress.

Building something feels like moving forward. But building something is not always progress. Sometimes it simply means investing time and energy in the wrong direction.

These situations often lead to strong discussions within product teams. Different people see the problem from different angles and the pressure to move forward quickly can amplify disagreements.

This is not unusual. In fact, much of product work is about helping teams navigate these disagreements and still find a way forward.

When waiting is the better decision

Waiting can be the smartest decision in several situations.

  • When research and customer conversations show no clear demand for a certain feature.

  • When there are other initiatives that are clearly more valuable.

  • When the technological landscape is still evolving and there is no clear direction yet.

In these situations rushing into implementation can easily lead to wasted effort.

Waiting allows teams to observe how the landscape evolves, collect better signals and make a more informed decision later.

Waiting requires active attention

Waiting does not mean ignoring the problem.

Product managers still need to monitor signals: customer feedback, product metrics, changes in the market and the evolution of the technology itself.

If the situation changes, the decision should change as well.

Sometimes that means starting something new. Other times it means stopping something that is already in progress.

Stopping work can be painful. Teams invest time and energy in what they build, and shutting something down can feel frustrating.

But continuing to invest in something that no longer makes sense is usually far more damaging.

Clear communication and transparency help teams understand why decisions change and why the focus needs to shift.

For a company to succeed, people need to remain convinced that the work they are doing matters.

Sometimes the right decision is to do nothing

Product teams are often rewarded for shipping things.

But sometimes the most responsible product decision is simply to do nothing. Waiting gives teams time to learn, observe and understand what actually matters.

And in product work, understanding the problem is often more valuable than rushing to solve it.