Portfolio governance

The portfolio question is not which projects are good. Most proposed work is defensible in isolation. It is which projects the organization can actually finish, given that finishing is what produces value and starting produces none.

Intake as a real gate

Without a single front door, work enters through relationships and volume, and the portfolio becomes the sum of who asked most persistently.

Require the same minimum from every proposal regardless of who is asking: the outcome sought, the evidence it matters, a rough size, the accountable owner, and what will not happen if it proceeds. That last one is the honest part — capacity is fixed, so approving anything is declining something else, whether or not the decline is ever stated.

Prioritize against capacity, not against merit