The idea

Innovation cycles are compressing. The only stable strategy is to design for change: small surfaces, clear contracts, fast rollback.

Why it matters

• Big-bang programs die under speed. Modular programs survive.
• Value shifts to teams that integrate quickly, not those that predict perfectly.

How to apply it

• Decouple: APIs at team boundaries; queues where pace mismatches.
• Strangler-fig: wrap legacy; cut over per route or per domain.
• Feature flags: ship small, test in production, roll back in minutes.
• Data fabric: shared IDs, lineage, contracts—not a monolith lake.

First 30–60 days

• Map 5–7 core flows from “lead → cash → serve.” Mark hard couplings.
• Pick one flow; introduce a queue or API facade; add observability.
• Stand up a change calendar; shrink batch size by half.

Signals / KPIs

• Lead time (idea→prod), change failure rate, MTTR, deploys/week.
• Percent of code behind flags; percent of flows observable end-to-end.

Risks & mitigations

• Risk: Fragmentation. Fix: platform guardrails, paved roads, docs.
• Risk: Tool sprawl. Fix: approved toolbox; golden paths per domain.