We spent days building our V/TO to align on our three-year targets, but our head of product development is secretly working on an entirely separate software prototype that does not fit our defined Niche. They believe their passion project will be a game-changer, but it is pulling resources from our core strategy. How do we handle this rogue alignment?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a direct violation of the Same Page pillar of your Charter. A leader who pursues their own passion project outside of your agreed-upon V/TO is actively undermining your company's focus and diluting your resources. Even if their prototype is brilliant, rogue execution is toxic to a leadership team and fatal to an exit-readiness strategy, which demands a highly focused, repeatable model.

You must address this immediately in a direct, reality-based dialogue. Sit down with your product head and pull out the V/TO. Review your Core Focus and your Niche. Ask them how this new project aligns with these defined boundaries.

If they argue that the V/TO needs to change, explain that the quarterly planning session was the time to have that debate. Once the leadership team walks out of that room, everyone must commit to the plan with one voice and one vision. If they cannot commit to the agreed-upon strategy, they are violating your core value of being Humbly-Confident.

Give them a clear choice: they must immediately shelve the rogue project and redirect all development resources to the strategic Rocks defined for this quarter, or they must step down from their seat. You cannot allow a rogue leader to build a parallel track that distracts your team. A successful exit requires absolute alignment, where every dollar of investment and every hour of labor is spent driving toward the same ten-year target.