In defense of the billable tangent

A tangent touches a curve at exactly one point and then heads off on its own. In a team, a tangent is the project that started as a quick check on one detail and is now, six weeks later, a small department.

The conventional advice is to cut tangents. The conventional advice is usually right. Usually.

How to tell the difference

Ask three questions about any tangent your team is pursuing.

First: does it still touch the idea? A good tangent stays in contact at its point of origin. If the team can no longer say which part of the plan the tangent came from, it has left, and it should be let go.

Second: is it heading somewhere the idea cannot go? The best tangents explore territory the main plan is structurally unable to reach. They are reconnaissance, not drift.

Third: would you fund it if someone proposed it fresh? If the honest answer is yes, stop calling it a tangent. Give it a name and a budget.

What we bill for

Our tangents practice identifies the tangents a team is currently running, estimates their cost, and recommends which to keep. Clients sometimes ask whether this engagement is itself a tangent. It is. It touches their strategy at exactly one point. We consider that a feature.

One more thing

Every few engagements we find a tangent that touches the idea at no point at all, and yet is clearly related to it. Geometrically this should not be possible. We keep a list of these. It is getting longer.