Architecture & practice·Making and recording decisions
the meeting spent five minutes on the data retention policy and thirty-five on the button label.
Bikeshedding
Also calledlaw of triviality, colour of the bikeshed
A group spending disproportionate time on the part of a problem everybody can understand. It happens because opinion is cheap where the subject is accessible and expensive where it is not, so the trivial item absorbs the participation the hard item deserved. Naming it in the room is a legitimate move, but the more effective one is structural: decide the trivial thing by default or by owner, and reserve the meeting for what needs the group.