Why Priorities Change (and What to do About It)
The Art of Moving Targets: An Introduction to the PFG Model of Transformation.
9 minute readYour team’s priorities keep changing. There’s talk of tooling, to give clarity, visibility, and structure. You might be using Aha!, ProdPad, Product Board, Jira Align… You may be leaning on spreadsheets, PowerPoint or Confluence. Maybe you’re reviewing the ROI or an incumbent tool, considering alternatives. Maybe you’re thinking of getting one in. Whatever the tooling situation, things still feel… messy.
It’s hard to track what’s happening, who’s doing what, when? It’s harder still to see what impact the work is having. “We shipped that release… So what?”
When clarity slips, trust soon follows. And when trust goes, groups form, wagons circled. Protectionism becomes the strategic approach. “We can’t do this because of them.” and “it’s their fault.”
Of course, no one really says these things out loud. But it’s there in the meta-messages when people don’t speak up on calls or meetings drift without commitments or actions.
Uncertainty turns to doubt in oneself, those around and the whole venture.
At this point, a lot of product teams ask: “How can our tooling help here?”
A fair question. But before answering it, it’s worth asking a deeper one:
“What will our tools reveal about how we work?” No matter how good the software, it only reflects the systems and the people behind it.
Productivity - Feedback - Growth: Three Triads of Transformation
Behind every healthy product operation, there’s a rhythm. A cycle. A way of working that moves with purpose, adapts with insight, and grows with integrity.
I call this rhythm the Three Triads of Transformation: three interconnected loops that can shape how teams build clarity and momentum together to create a virtuous cycle of productivity, feedback and growth. Let’s step through each of these interconnecting concepts one at a time through the lens of changing priorities, starting with productivity.
1. Productivity: The Doing Loop
Productivity | Effort | Simplicity
Let’s start by saying that these three things are not end to end. They’re a loop that you can step into at any point.
“Messy priorities are often a symptom of trying to do too much. When everything matters, nothing does.”
So here we need to focus on the Productivity Triad. Note the word productivity has been carefully selected. We’re not interested in just any old action - doing stuff and things (although that can be helpful and we’ll talk about it in the Feedback loop).
What’s important here is the intentional act of consistently doing that which matters most.
So how do you do that? Well, you need to find simplicity. Simplicity is one of those things that when you have it, everything is beautiful, easy, flow. Simplicity looks like the easiest thing in the world. It’s not. It’s hard. Really hard. It’s one of the hardest things to accomplish. Many organisations struggle with it and it’s why I’m writing this blog. Simplicity comes from significant, intentional effort to challenge what’s established, to cut what’s not needed, to make sacrifices. I talk more about simplicity and entropy in an earlier blog if that’s of deeper interest to you.
Put simply, simplicity is the discipline to reduce noise. The focus to pursue less, better.
There, I can’t even bring myself just to use one sentence and be simple. Simplicity is just too hard!
Let’s try again.
“Simplicity is the focussed pursuit of less to achieve more.”
Yes. Let’s go with that for now.
Simplicity is also not permanent. It has to be fought for, endlessly. With a kind of mindful disregard for it that is maddening. Take your eye off the ball for too long and chaos breaks out. Work too hard for simplicity and the sheer effort takes simplicity away. Strip things back too much and everything stops working. On the flip side - how hard is it to resist adding in that one more little thing, that extra detail.
Productivity, simplicity and effort. Do you have these? How do you know?
2. Feedback: The Belonging Loop
Feedback | Inspiration | Action
One way to know if you’re doing the right things is to look for feedback.
Frequently changing priorities is feedback. Feedback that the priorities weren’t the right ones. Or that the prioritisation process is off. Or that development takes too long. Or that the strategy wasn’t as clear as thought. Or maybe something else. But it’s a clear signal.
As is silence. As is a lack of uptake, a user abandoning checkout, a stakeholder ghosting a meeting, the length of a complaint message, the brevity of a response. Feedback arrives in ways we prefer and those we don’t like, in helpful and unhelpful ways. Intended or unintended.
“Feedback shows up everywhere. But only if we’re aware of the need to look. And willing to embrace it.”
That willingness is psychological. It asks us to notice how we respond to feedback. Do we feel defensive, flattered, irritated, exposed, energised? Do we ask open questions, or steer people toward the answers we want to hear? Do we unconsciously ignore certain sources because they’re too quiet, too emotional, too junior, too inconvenient? Do we attack the source rather than the message?
When we go from reacting to feedback into reflecting on it, we start to create a sense of belonging. New perspectives open up. Patterns appear. Options emerge. This is the moment of inspiration, it might be the lightning bolt kind, though more often, the quiet clarity of seeing more than one path forward and feeling freed, liberated, excited, motivated. Inspired.
And from that clarity, we act.
The loop begins again. More action brings more feedback. More feedback reveals more truth. And when those truths are aligned with purpose, they sharpen our impact. We’re no longer just acting, we’re moving intentionally, with momentum.
And yet, even with the best of intentions, we can’t help but shape the feedback we receive. From quantum physics to organisational behaviour, the observer effect reminds us that simply by being part of the system, we alter it. The questions we ask, the way we frame them, the tone we use, even our silence. All of it steers what comes back. To explore feedback fully, we have to reflect on our own role in the loop. What are we doing, consciously or unconsciously, to influence the signals we’re receiving?
Reflective Questions for Feedback Loops
What feedback do we have?
Are we recognising all forms of feedback, including silence, delay, abandonment, or indirect signals? What are we unconsciously ignoring, rejecting that could be valuable?How do we approach the concept of feedback?
What beliefs, biases, or emotional filters do we bring into feedback conversations? How might these affect what we hear, seek, or accept?What is our process for capturing feedback?
Are our methods reliable and appropriate? Do we balance depth with volume, and speed with insight?How do we evaluate the options created by feedback?
How do we distinguish signal from noise? Are decisions rooted in strategy, or shaped by who speaks loudest?How do we decide when to look for feedback?
Are we reacting too quickly or waiting too long? How do we match our timing to the nature of the work, the feedback signals, and any external constraints?How do we know when we’ve gathered enough feedback to act?
Are we confident we’ve heard what we need, or are we stalling for certainty that may never come?
3. Growth: The Inner Loop
Growth | Vulnerability | Confidence
When feedback is received openly and reflected on honestly, it creates the conditions for growth. But only if the organisation or individual is willing to be vulnerable. Vulnerability in this context means admitting uncertainty, surfacing discomfort, and allowing for “we’re not sure yet.” That openness creates room to examine changing priorities without shame or blame.
Rather than scrambling to respond to every new input, teams begin to ask better questions: What are we learning? What’s changing, and why? Over time, this willingness to sit with ambiguity builds real confidence. Confidence based on establishing trust, holding course, saying no when needed, and prioritising with intent.
But growth doesn’t happen just because feedback is available.
“Growth happens when people and teams are able to step into the discomfort of honest reflection, when they are supported to name the things that feel unsafe to say out loud.”
‘This doesn’t make sense’, ‘I don’t think this will work’, or ‘I’m unclear on why.’
“All too often, people worry about appearing weak, ill-informed, out of the loop, sounding stupid. In reality, these are signs of a system ready to grow.”
When these vulnerable moments are met with empathy and respect rather than judgement or frustration, something changes. Vulnerability becomes an accelerant. It gives permission for others to be honest. It creates space for uncertainty to be acknowledged and for better ideas to emerge. When the uncertainty comes from a leader, it creates a model for others to follow.
“When vulerability becomes part of how the team works, confidence builds. Confidence becomes the shared understanding that we can adapt, decide, recover, and realign. Together.”
Organisations that avoid vulnerability often chase stability instead. They confuse confidence with certainty, and see changing priorities as a problem to be hidden rather than a signal to explore. That’s when change becomes chaotic. That’s when people disengage. But when growth is part of the culture, changing priorities don’t shake the system, they create the opportunity to sharpen it.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s far better for priorities to remain consistent through a planning and delivery cycle. But only if the consistency comes from a place of owning feedback, being vulnerable to new ideas and having already built confidence that the goal is clear and understood by all.
So ask:
How do we model vulnerability as a strength?
Do our leaders admit uncertainty, or perform certainty at all costs? Are people rewarded for honesty or punished for hesitation?What signals tell us our team is avoiding risk?
Is there silence when something’s not working? Reluctance to speak up in large groups? Repeated deferral to authority?Where does our confidence come from?
Is it rooted in alignment and shared purpose or in performance and projection?How do we talk about change?
Is it framed as failure, or as learning? As disruption, or as opportunity?
The Triad within the Triads
The real power of the triads is in how they reinforce each other.
Productivity gives the opportunity for targeted feedback.
Feedback lays the platform for growth.
Growth directs us towards a clearer purpose, to be yet more productive.
Whilst tooling and processes are important, they will only reflect back the people behind them. A system must consider everything that’s involved and all too often, the people are left behind.
Why do we have ever changing priorities? Who knows. It’s not even clear that ever changing priorities is definitely bad. What’s most important is how you address the challenge of reflecting on the feedback that “Our priorities are always changing”.
Start Where You Are
Before reviewing your software licenses, deciding on a Digital Transformation, arranging all your products into squads and value streams, breaking out into PIs, launching a change management programme… pause.
Ask:
Ok so our priorities change. So what?
What’s really driving the changing priorities? What’s helpful or unhelpful about this?
How well does our strategy serve our business and customers?
How do we approach feedback?
What mindset do we bring to our challenges?
The Productivity - Feedback - Growth Model of Transformation helps you make sense of your situation. It shows where small changes can spark momentum.
Then, when you do review your processes, evaluate tooling or seek outside help, you’ll know exactly what it’s there to support.
Need help finding a reliable path forward?
If your team is caught in changing priorities, let’s talk.
Your Roadmap - Coaching & Consulting helps product organisations to build meaningful strategies that drive purposeful, frictionless operations and build beautiful roadmaps.
Steve Dagless
I am the Founder of Your Roadmap - Coaching & Consulting.
Life, work and business can be so simple. Let me help quieten the noise.
Helping leaders find
Balance - working in harmony with the world
Fulfilment - by doing what matters most
Process - to be at their best
Helping business deliver
Strategy - purposefully connecting with ‘why’
Operations - what, when and how; smoothly and simply
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