There is a particular kind of meeting that most leaders have sat through but few will name honestly. It is the meeting where a strong idea enters the room and a diluted version leaves. Not because anyone opposed it outright, but because the process of gaining agreement from every stakeholder in the room required so many concessions that the original intent was quietly gutted.

This is the cost of consensus. And it is one of the most expensive, least visible forces acting on product companies today.

The instinct toward consensus is understandable. Organizations are complex. Decisions affect multiple functions. When a product direction is set without buy-in from engineering, sales, marketing, and operations, execution suffers. People