Patterns / 5. Changing the Flows
Pattern 5.9
Write In the Review Date
Agree a funding model with the people it affects during the budget cycle, and write a date for reviewing it into the plan.
In This Context
Funding models are often imposed in a hurry. Connector’s chargeback was imposed by its board in a cost crisis, to hit an earnings call three months away, with no input from engineering, and a lot of the damage came from the way it was done rather than the idea itself. Models also outlive the people who agreed them: sponsors leave, and a commitment that exists only in a slide deck owned by someone who has moved on is one nobody will defend or explain.
You notice this when nobody can say who agreed the current funding model, when, or when it will next be looked at.
Therefore
- Agree the model with finance and the units it affects ahead of the budget round, not in a crisis.
- Fix a date for reviewing it, such as every January.
- Write both into a plan that will outlive its sponsor.
Consequently
- The model is more likely to be accepted, and more likely to outlive the people who agreed it.
- Every review reopens the argument: a tax and its key will be argued over every year.
Seen In
Chapter 17, “Designing a Chargeback That Doesn’t Become Connector’s”; Chapter 17’s conclusion (Jan’s model “will be reviewed each January”); Chapter 15, “Timing: Exploiting the Budget Cycle”; “Sponsors leave” in Chapter 15, “Other Ways to Find Room”; Chapter 16, “Make the Numbers Survive Being Checked”.