Office Hours · June 30
When you can build anything, where are the boundaries?
Scoping · Saying no · Getting out
Problem
The bottleneck moved.
Cheap yes, expensive tail
Cheap building makes bad asks more expensive.
The work looks trivial, so the “yes” feels free. The tail is not.
old world
expensive build
expensive build
AI world
cheap yes
cheap yes
The hidden cost
YES
feels free
But every tiny yes creates a surface area: edge cases, expectations, politics, support, and future asks.
What compounds
Scope
Maintenance
Stakeholders
Dependency
Communication
The pattern
Five ways the easy yes compounds.
01
Scope creep
Log every yes.
02
Maintenance tail
Price or exclude.
03
Stakeholder surprise
Name the decider.
04
De facto employee
Set request paths.
05
Communication ceiling
Cap by attention.
Boundary language
Replace the easy yes with a boundary system.
Before
“Sure, I can do that.”
Momentum without visibility.
During
“Yes, and that’s phase two.”
Acknowledges the idea. Protects the scope.
After
“Here’s who owns it.”
Turns delivery into handoff.
The promise
Scope the promise, not the task list.
Prototype
learn
fast
fast
Get read-only access. Validate what is already in their CRM, then show the output. An afternoon, nothing to run.
Product
operate
clean
clean
The owned, monitored, documented build. Only after they have seen it work.
The tail
Price the tail before it becomes a favor.
1
Build
2
Ship
3
API changes
4
Prompt drifts
5
They call you
The people
Map the people before you automate the work.
A tool changes someone’s job. If that person was not in the scope, they arrive later as rework.
Champion
VP
IT
Legal
Ops
User
Ask: who else has to say yes before this is done?
The attention ceiling
Treat communication as the scarce resource.
What actually fills up
Not build time. Attention.
One request path. One cadence. One owner.
Value, not time
Faster delivery does not make the outcome worth less.
1judgment
2risk removed
3leverage created
The exit
Design the exit before you say yes.
Done means someone else can run it.
What you learned today
Three moves that keep AI work bounded.
01
Scope the promise.
Say whether this is learning, production, or an operating commitment.
02
Name the tail.
Maintenance, support, approvals, communication, and monitoring are real work.
03
Design the exit.
Done means docs, walkthrough, owner, and a clean handoff.
Apply this tomorrow
Before the next yes, ask the three questions.
If you cannot answer them clearly, you are not looking at a quick task. You are looking at unscoped ownership.
Questions
Bring me a tiny yes you are considering or one you already regret.
What promise are you being asked to make?
What hidden tail might come with it?
What boundary sentence would keep it clean?
Thank you
Keep building. Keep the boundaries.
Scott Murtaugh
Growth Process Automation
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