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Every card for one document, both halves open. Nothing here is graded, scheduled or due — tick the ones that are still abstract and queue an example for each.

103 cards · 0 with examples
The Principles of Product Development Flow
Q According to Reinertsen, what is the single most important weakness of current product development orthodoxy?
A Failure to correctly quantify economics (i.e., using proxy variables instead of measuring life-cycle profit impact)
new product-development economics reinertsen flow
Q What does the Principle of Quantified Overall Economics prescribe as the basis for selecting actions?
A Quantified overall economic impact
new product-development economics reinertsen decision-making
Q According to Reinertsen's economic framework, if you could only quantify one thing in product development, what should it be?
A The cost of delay
new product-development economics cost-of-delay reinertsen
Q According to the Principle of Economic Value-Added, how is the value of an activity measured?
A By the change in economic value of the work product before and after the activity is performed.
new product-development economics reinertsen value
Q What does the Inactivity Principle say we should monitor in product development, and why?
A Watch the work product, not the worker — the bottleneck is almost always motionless work products, not idle engineers.
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Q What does the Imperfection Principle state about decision making?
A Even imperfect answers improve decision making — the goal is to improve decisions, not make them perfect.
new product-development economics decision-making reinertsen
Q According to the First Perishability Principle, how does waiting affect the economic value of opportunities and obstacles?
A Opportunities shrink and obstacles grow over time — the longer you wait, the less economic value is available.
new product-development economics decision-timing reinertsen
Q When it comes to the First Perishability Principle what is the implication on what we must do with our decisions
A we must explicitly measure, and shorten, the time it takes to make a decision.
learning product-development decision-making perishability-principle flow
Q What does the Principle of Early Harvesting prescribe in product development decision-making?
A Create systems to capture opportunities early, when they are cheapest to exploit.
new product-development economics flow-based-development reinertsen
Q What is the Principle of Buying Information?
A The value of information is its expected economic value.
new product-development economics decision-making reinertsen
Q Why does reducing uncertainty in an economic outcome create economic value?
A Because information that reduces uncertainty enables better economic choices, and clearer outcomes are worth more than uncertain ones.
new economics information-value product-development decision-making
Q What is the maximum you should pay for information that reduces uncertainty in product development?
A No greater than the economic value the information creates
learning product-development economics decision-making information-value
Q What two questions must product developers answer to understand the economic cost of queues?
A 1) How big are our queues? 2) What is the cost of these queues (i.e., cost of delay)?
new product-development queues economics flow
Q What happens when we become aware of the cost of queues?
A We become aware of the cost of queues and we are motivated to measure and manage them.
new product-development queues cost-of-delay flow
Q In product development queueing theory, what is a 'queue'?
A A system of waiting work
new product-development queueing-theory flow
Q In queueing theory, what is a 'server'?
A The resource performing the work on items in the queue
review queueing-theory product-development flow
Q In queueing theory, what is the 'arrival process'?
A The pattern with which work arrives to a queue
new queueing-theory product-development flow
Q In queueing theory, what does 'service process' refer to?
A The time it takes the server to accomplish the work (i.e., service time per job)
new queueing-theory product-development flow
Q In queueing theory, what does 'queueing discipline' refer to?
A The rule determining the sequence in which waiting jobs are selected for service (e.g., FIFO)
new queueing-theory product-development flow
Q In queueing theory, what does 'occupancy' measure?
A The number of items in a queue, in service, or in the entire system combined
new queueing-theory product-development flow
Q In queueing theory, what three components make up total cycle time?
A Time in queue + Time in service + Total time in system
new queueing-theory product-development flow cycle-time
Q In product development, what is the root cause of the majority of economic waste?
A Queues
review product-development queues lean flow
Q According to Reinertsen, what three-level failure do most companies exhibit regarding queues in product development?
A They don't measure queues, don't manage queues, and don't even recognize queues as a problem.
new product-development queues flow reinertsen
Q What is the primary way queues harm a product development process?
A They increase cycle time — larger queues mean longer waits before work is processed.
new product-development queues flow cycle-time
Q How do queues increase the riskiness of a product development process?
A Queues increase transit time through the pipeline, making the project more vulnerable to changes in customer preference, competitor product introductions, and shifts in underlying technology.
new product-development queues risk flow
Q How do queues increase variability in a development process?
A High queue levels mean high capacity utilization, which amplifies variability — small deviations in loading turn into very large deviations in cycle time.
new product-development queues variability flow
Q How do queues raise process costs beyond just delay time?
A More projects in process = more projects to track and report status on, increasing administrative overhead.
new product-development queues wip overhead
Q How do queues reduce quality in product development?
A By delaying feedback from downstream processes, causing errors to propagate longer before being caught.
new product-development queues feedback quality
Q Beyond slowing throughput, what psychological harm do large queues cause in product development teams?
A They undermine motivation and initiative — workers feel little urgency when their output will simply sit waiting in a long queue.
new product-development queues psychology flow
Q What is the single most important factor that affects queue size?
A Capacity utilization
review queuing-theory product-development flow reinertsen
Q According to the Principle of Linked Queues, what is the most effective way to improve flow at a bottleneck?
A Manage the upstream process — it controls arrival rate variability at the bottleneck, which directly affects the bottleneck's queue.
new product-development queueing-theory flow bottlenecks
Q When jobs differ in both cost of delay and duration, what two simple sequencing heuristics should guide queue prioritization?
A 1) High cost of delay before low cost of delay 2) Short jobs before long jobs
new product-development queueing scheduling flow
Q According to the The First Queue Size Control Principle, you should aim to control what instead of directly controlling the queue size
A capacity utilization
learning product-development flow queues wip
Q In flow-based product development, why should you control queue size rather than cycle time?
A Queue size is a leading indicator — controlling it automatically achieves cycle time control, whereas managing cycle time directly is reactive and less effective.
new product-development queueing-theory flow wip
Q What flawed assumption underlies the 'worship of conformance' in product development?
A That the benefit of correcting any deviation from the plan always exceeds the cost of doing so — placing unwarranted trust in the original plan.
new product-development planning decision-making reinertsen
Q Why should conformance to the original project plan NOT be treated as an inherent virtue?
A The original plan was based on noisy data from a long time-horizon; new information constantly arrives that can change the economics of earlier decisions.
new product-development planning variability decision-making
Q Why does blindly conforming to an original project plan destroy economic value?
A The plan was based on noisy, early data; emergent information can completely change the economics of the original choice, making conformance to it suboptimal.
new product-development planning economics variability
Q Why is rigid conformance to the original product development plan economically harmful?
A Valuable new information constantly arrives throughout the development cycle, making the original plan (based on noisy, long-horizon data) obsolete — ignoring it destroys economic value.
new product-development planning economics flow-based-development
Q In product development, why is strict conformance to the original plan economically harmful?
A It ignores valuable new information that emerges during development, preventing better economic decisions based on updated data.
learning product-development economics planning reinertsen
Q According to Reinertsen, what two mindset failures cause organizations to institutionalize large batch sizes?
A Blindness to queues + focus on efficiency
new product-development batch-size flow lean
Q According to the Batch Size Queueing Principle, what happens to cycle time when you reduce batch size?
A Cycle time decreases — often by an order of magnitude or more — without changing capacity utilization.
new product-development batch-size flow queues
Q How does reducing batch size affect cycle time without changing capacity utilization?
A It reduces cycle time, often by an order of magnitude or more
learning product-development batch-size cycle-time flow
Q What does the Batch Size Variability Principle state about the relationship between batch size and flow variability?
A Reducing batch sizes reduces variability in flow.
new ⧉ same passage product-development batch-size flow variability reinertsen
Q What does the Batch Size Variability Principle state about the relationship between batch size and flow variability?
A Reducing batch sizes reduces variability in flow.
new ⧉ same passage product-development batch-size flow variability lean
Q Why does reducing batch size accelerate feedback?
A Smaller batches complete and move to the next stage faster, so errors and results are discovered sooner rather than waiting for a large batch to finish.
new product-development batch-size feedback flow
Q Why does reducing batch size reduce risk in product development?
A Smaller batches shorten the time items spend in the pipeline, reducing exposure to changes in customer preferences, competitor moves, and shifting requirements.
new ⧉ same passage product-development batch-size risk-management flow
Q Why does reducing batch size reduce risk in product development?
A Smaller batches have shorter transit times through the pipeline, reducing exposure to changes in customer preference, competitor moves, and technology shifts.
new ⧉ same passage product-development batch-size risk-management flow
Q According to the Batch Size Overhead Principle, what happens to overhead when batch size is reduced?
A Overhead decreases — smaller batches require less tracking, coordination, and status reporting.
new product-development batch-size flow lean
Q Why do large batches *reduce* efficiency despite appearing to offer scale economies?
A Hidden system-level costs (e.g., debug complexity growing as 2ⁿ with n simultaneous changes) outweigh local efficiency gains.
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Q Why do large batches *reduce* efficiency despite appearing to offer scale economies?
A Hidden system-level costs (e.g., debug complexity grows exponentially with simultaneous changes) outweigh local efficiency gains.
new ⧉ same passage product-development batch-size flow reinertsen
Q According to the Psychology Principle of Batch Size, what are the two ways large batches demotivate people?
A 1. They dilute individual responsibility (easy to hide in a crowd of contributors). 2. They delay feedback, removing the positive reinforcement that comes from seeing your work immediately picked up by the next process.
new product-development batch-size motivation flow
Q Why do large batches dilute responsibility in product development?
A When many items travel together, it's likely someone else will cause the delay — so each individual feels less accountable for the overall outcome.
new batch-size product-development motivation flow
Q Why do large batches tend to grow even larger over time (the Batch Size Death Spiral)?
A Large batches increase cycle time, risk, and overhead, which creates pressure to add more work to each batch to justify the high transaction cost — reinforcing the use of large batches.
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Q What does the Least Common Denominator Principle of Batch Size state?
A The entire batch is limited by its worst element.
new product-development batch-size flow reinertsen
Q According to the Principle of Low Transaction Cost, what is the relationship between transaction cost per batch and optimal batch size?
A Lower transaction cost per batch enables smaller (more economical) batch sizes
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Q When estimating the hidden costs of large batch sizes, what heuristic does Reinertsen recommend?
A Assume hidden costs are about twice as high as you think — so target a batch size ~30% smaller than what you calculate as optimal.
new product-development batch-size economics flow
Q According to Reinertsen, if you calculate an 'optimal' batch size, what should your actual target batch size be?
A ~70% of your calculated optimum (i.e., aim ~30% smaller than you think is optimal)
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Q What capacity-related advantage do small batches provide over large batches?
A Small batches allow finer tuning of capacity utilization.
new product-development batch-size flow capacity
Q Why does good infrastructure enable small batches in product development?
A It reduces transaction costs per batch, making frequent small transfers economically viable.
new product-development batch-size flow infrastructure
Q Why does good infrastructure enable smaller batch sizes in product development?
A It reduces transaction costs per batch, making frequent small batches economically viable.
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Q According to the Principle of Batch Content, what should determine the sequencing of work within a batch?
A Sequence first the work that adds value most cheaply (highest value-to-cost ratio first).
new product-development batch-size flow sequencing
Q When trying to improve flow, what should you do before attacking bottlenecks?
A Reduce batch size first — it's cheaper than adding capacity and massively reduces queues.
review product-development batch-size flow lean
Q In flow-based product development, what is the preferred first approach for reducing queues, and why is it favored over adding capacity?
A Reduce batch size first — it's cheaper than adding capacity, easier to sell to management, and massively reduces queues.
new product-development batch-size queues flow
Q What is the recommended approach for implementing smaller requirement batches in product development?
A Progressively lock down requirements — freeze what engineering needs earliest first, rather than releasing all requirements in one large batch.
new product-development batch-size requirements flow
Q In flow-based product development, what is the recommended approach to project planning?
A High-level planning for the entire project, but detailed planning only for a short time-horizon (rolling wave / 'walking in the fog')
new product-development planning batch-size variability
Q What is the recommended approach to reduce the cost of reacting to market research findings?
A Decompose research into a series of small-scale tests, starting with high-risk questions, so information is generated early when it is cheapest to act on.
new product-development batch-size market-research feedback
Q How does cadence make small batches more economically feasible?
A By lowering transaction costs — regular, predictable timing eliminates coordination overhead, making frequent small-batch transfers cheap to execute.
new product-development cadence batch-size flow
Q Why do cadence-synchronized meetings have low overhead compared to ad-hoc meetings?
A No need to announce meetings or coordinate schedules — the fixed rhythm makes setup costs negligible.
new product-development cadence meetings flow
Q In flow-based product development, what is the primary role of cadence in managing variability?
A It prevents the progressive accumulation of variability across sequential process steps by imposing a regular, predictable rhythm.
new product-development cadence variability flow
Q According to flow-based product development, what is the primary purpose of constraining WIP?
A To control cycle time and flow
new product-development wip flow lean
Q Why should low-value projects be purged when WIP is high?
A High WIP → high queues → high delay costs for all in-process jobs; keeping low-value work raises the holding cost beyond its worth, blocking higher-value jobs.
new product-development wip queues flow
Q What is the core action prescribed by the Principle of Resource Pulling?
A Quickly apply extra resources to an emerging queue before it grows large.
new product-development flow queues wip
Q What does the Big Gun Principle prescribe when an emerging bottleneck appears in a development process?
A Pull high-powered experts to the emerging bottleneck to resolve it quickly.
new product-development flow wip bottlenecks
Q What does the Cumulative Reduction Principle state about WIP reduction?
A Consistently completing more work than you start causes queues to shrink progressively — small reductions accumulate into an enormous cumulative effect.
new product-development wip queues flow
Q Why must WIP be made visible in product development, unlike in manufacturing?
A Because product development inventory is information (not physical objects), making it naturally invisible — you must actively represent it to manage it.
new product-development wip flow lean
Q In product development, what is the primary role of cadence in a sequential process?
A It transforms unpredictable events into predictable ones, preventing variability from accumulating across process steps.
new product-development flow cadence variability
Q What does the Principle of Congestion Collapse state happens when system loading becomes too high?
A A sudden and catastrophic drop in output (not a gradual decline).
new product-development flow queues congestion
Q According to the Principle of Visible Congestion, what metric should be used to make congestion visible, and how is it calculated?
A Expected flow time = WIP ÷ current processing rate (using Little's Formula)
new product-development flow queues congestion
Q What is the purpose of periodic resynchronization in product development flow?
A Use a regular cadence to limit the accumulation of variance across sequential process steps.
new product-development flow cadence variability
Q How does a regular cadence enable smaller batch sizes?
A By reducing coordination overhead (transaction costs), making it economical to process work more frequently in smaller increments.
new product-development cadence batch-size flow
Q How does cadence make smaller batch sizes economically feasible?
A By making activities automatic and routine, cadence lowers transaction overhead per batch, reducing the fixed cost that would otherwise favor larger batches.
new ⧉ same passage product-development cadence batch-size flow
Q How does cadence make smaller batch sizes economically feasible?
A By making activities automatic and routine, cadence lowers transaction overhead per batch, reducing the fixed cost that would otherwise favor larger batches.
new ⧉ same passage product-development cadence batch-size flow
Q Why does scheduling meetings on a regular cadence reduce coordination overhead?
A Fixed, predictable timing eliminates the need to announce, schedule, or coordinate each meeting — making setup cost nearly zero.
new ⧉ same passage product-development cadence flow meetings
Q Why does scheduling meetings on a regular cadence reduce coordination overhead?
A Fixed timing eliminates the need to announce, schedule, or coordinate each meeting — making them automatic and routine.
new ⧉ same passage product-development cadence flow meetings
Q When all jobs have the same cost of delay, what is the optimal scheduling strategy?
A Do the shortest job first (SJF) — minimizes total wait time across all jobs.
new product-development scheduling flow queues
Q When all jobs take the same amount of time but have different delay costs, which should you prioritize first?
A The job with the highest cost of delay (HDCF — High Delay Cost First)
review product-development scheduling flow cost-of-delay
Q What is the key benefit of Round-Robin scheduling (time-sharing capacity) when task durations are unknown?
A Short jobs complete faster than long jobs, even without prior knowledge of job lengths.
new product-development flow-control scheduling queues
Q In product development task sequencing, what is the general rule for ordering steps by cost and risk?
A Inexpensive steps that eliminate a lot of risk should occur early.
new product-development sequencing risk-management flow
Q How does fast feedback improve the economics of risky product development decisions?
A It truncates unproductive paths more quickly, reducing the expected loss on the downside of the payoff function.
new product-development fast-feedback economics variability
Q How does fast feedback affect queue size and WIP in a development process?
A Fast feedback enables smaller queues — processes with fast feedback loops can operate with less WIP.
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Q Why must we often invest in a superior development environment when implementing fast feedback loops?
A To extract the smaller signals that come with fast feedback — the signals are weaker and harder to detect at higher frequency.
new product-development fast-feedback flow reinertsen
Q In product development, why do small batches improve the economics of risk-taking?
A Fast feedback truncates unsuccessful paths quickly, reducing the cost of failure.
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Q What does the Locality Principle of Feedback prescribe about where feedback should occur?
A Whenever possible, make feedback local (closest to where the work is done).
new product-development feedback flow reinertsen
Q Why do large queues make it hard to create urgency in product development?
A The long time lag between completing work and seeing it serviced weakens the perceived connection between effort and outcome, killing motivation.
new product-development queues feedback flow
Q In product development feedback and control, what does 'The Attention Principle' state is more valuable than money?
A Time (time counts more than money)
new product-development flow-based-development feedback economics
Q In the Knight/Keynes distinction, what defines 'risk' (as opposed to uncertainty)?
A You don't know the outcome, but you know the probability distribution.
new decision-theory risk-vs-uncertainty economics
Q In the Knight/Keynes distinction, what separates *risk* from *uncertainty*?
A Risk: you know the probability distribution of outcomes. Uncertainty: you don't even know the distribution.
new decision-making economics risk-vs-uncertainty epistemology
Q What is the key distinction between Knightian 'risk' and 'uncertainty'?
A Risk: unknown outcome but known probability distribution. Uncertainty: you don't even know the distribution — you don't know what you don't know.
new decision-making economics product-development epistemology
Q Under genuine uncertainty (vs. quantifiable risk), how should the goal of early project steps be reframed?
A From 'eliminate the highest-risk items first' to 'design steps that expose the shape of the uncertainty landscape itself'
new product-development uncertainty sequencing reinertsen
Q In batch size economics, what is a 'transaction cost'?
A The fixed overhead paid per batch, regardless of batch size — creating economic pressure toward larger batches.
new product-development batch-size flow economics
Q Why do fixed transaction costs create economic pressure toward larger batches?
A Because the fixed overhead is spread across more items in a larger batch, lowering the cost per item — making bigger batches appear more efficient.
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Q Why is reducing transaction cost often more valuable than adding capacity at a bottleneck?
A It's a one-time investment that permanently shifts the optimal batch size for all future decisions, changing the system's underlying economics rather than just relieving one constraint.
new product-development batch-size transaction-cost flow-economics
Q According to Little's Law, what is the formula for Wait Time in a queuing system?
A Wait Time = Queue Size / Processing Rate
new queuing-theory littles-law flow product-development