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CommunicationDecisions

Change the Representation

Is this actually small, or does it only look small in the representation I'm using?

Situation

Two people describe the same change as radically different in size or complexity.

The idea

Something can be small at one interface and large inside the system—or technically difficult while almost irrelevant to the user.

Useful when

Estimationscope discussionsproduct vs engineering disagreementdependency analysis

Watch for

A more complicated representation isn't automatically the more relevant one. Ask which representation matters for the decision.

Where this came from

Engineering, Product work

Read the reasoning

Problems at the BoundaryPrimary post · Sep 24, 2026