--- title: Protect the Phases | daily.dev description: A design leader reflects on a common organizational habit: senior stakeholders injecting build-phase feedback into discovery-phase work, causing teams to... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/protect-the-phases-1xzjzod46 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Protect the Phases | daily.dev og:description: A design leader reflects on a common organizational habit: senior stakeholders injecting build-phase feedback into discovery-phase work, causing teams to... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/protect-the-phases-1xzjzod46 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/1XZJZod46.png og:image:alt: Protect the Phases og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Protect the Phases **[Medium](https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A design leader reflects on a common organizational habit: senior stakeholders injecting build-phase feedback into discovery-phase work, causing teams to prematurely harden unvalidated directions. The core argument is that timing of feedback is a leadership discipline, not a process problem. Leaders must make it psychologically safe and cheap for team members to push back and protect their current phase. Two concrete examples from the author's own week illustrate the value of staying in discovery one extra day and setting explicit decision points to prevent sunk-cost drift. The piece warns that overly sacred phases can become theater, advocating instead for a 'permeable membrane with a doorman' — the team, backed by leaders who genuinely reward pushback. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [If You're Hesitating on a Software Investment, Here's What to Do Next](https://daily.dev/posts/if-you-re-hesitating-on-a-software-investment-here-s-what-to-do-next-hna9v9jww) · RUBYLAND · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Discovery Is Not a Phase. 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