Who Owns The Tradeoffs?

I wrote before that AI agents can introduce a tradeoff between quality and speed. That's challenging enough when you have to pick the correct tradeoff for yourself. It's even more challenging when multiple parties are involved. I recently talked to someone in an organization with the following situation:

• The CEO wants everyone to use AI to move faster

• The lead engineer wants to maintain strict quality standards

Neither is wrong, but if their conflicting desires aren't coordinated, it can spiral into a potentially explosive situation. In a dysfunctional organization, the CEO would exhort their team to go as fast as possible, then blame them if things went awry due to lower quality. In a healthy organization, several ways exist to resolve the tension:

• The CEO could decide to make the call and then own the decision

• Or they could set clear expectations on quality and then ask the team to go as fast as possible without dipping below that level

• Or they could set an expectation on speed of delivery and ask the team to make it as good as possible without slowing down

In each case, they must own the outcome because these outcomes are a function of the guidance (and incentives) set by the CEO. What's essential is that one person owns both sides of the tradeoff.