1) Not managing hypotheses

You have beliefs about your products, services, and features. Start by writing them down and then test them.  Hypothesis management is how you win by with talent rather than by luck or by “placing bets”.  NOTE:  You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars or even engage your colleagues to execute insightful experiments; start by talking to your customers.

2) Focusing on features

If you focus on features you’ll have an organization obsessed with features.  At the end of the day, the features don’t actually matter; What mattered was their impact. The mantra should be, “[XY% metric] by [date]” rather than, “Launch [random feature] by [date]”.  Focusing on quantifiable impacts unleashes your entire team’s potential against those impacts.

3) Slacking on documentation

You can have the best idea in the world, but with poor documentation, you’ll get poor execution.  What is good documentation?  It succinctly explains what you want accomplish, for whom, and why (see the User Story).   It starts a conversation, explains or shows what success looks like, and allows your engineers to innovate on solutions.  Note: This is a complex topic, but worth further reading.  See Specification by Example.

Getting these things correct will drive your company’s success and boost everyone’s engagement.