Comparison
BikesheddingvsHiPPO
Bikeshedding
the meeting spent five minutes on the data retention policy and thirty-five on the button label.
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.
Full entry →HiPPO
the room had agreed until the director said what they preferred, and then everyone had a new opinion.
A decision made by seniority rather than by evidence. It is not always wrong — senior people often hold context the room does not — but it becomes corrosive when it goes unnamed, because the team stops bringing options and starts guessing preferences. The countermeasures are procedural: opinions in writing before the meeting, the most senior person speaking last, and stating explicitly when a call is a preference rather than a conclusion.
Full entry →