Work was stressful and rushed all autumn, all the way up to Christmas. At one point, it looked like we might have to work the weekend before Christmas. Somehow we got it all sorted out without having to work on weekends or holidays, and we all heaved great big sighs of relief at the end of the year.

But 9 months of short-term thinking have left their traces. We’re instinctively still rushing, still thinking we need to hurry hurry hurry. The duct tape and bubble gum solutions we had to build in some places are not getting fixed. We’re not adding to our debt burden, but we’re not paying it back either.

We’ll have to retrain ourselves to slow down again. To not take shortcuts – because we don’t have to. And we’ll have to retrain our product owner to not expect that kind of pace, and to make her understand how unsustainable it was.