# What you can build decides what you can sell
Understanding · principle · https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-05-what-you-can-build-decides-what-you-can-sell.html

## The reflex

The technical team runs like an internal supplier. The business decides what it wants, tech estimates and builds.

The real decisions are made elsewhere and arrive as tickets.

## The builder's reflex

> "Our architecture is already deciding part of the roadmap. Let's look at what it allows before we choose."

## Why

What your team can build decides what the company can sell. A team wants to offer regional pricing. The system handles a single price. The sales promise is made; the work takes three months. Had someone looked first, a narrower version could have shipped in two weeks.

The information works both ways. An existing capability sometimes makes an offer possible when everyone thought it was out of reach. A change that looks small can push work onto support or accounting. The people who build know this. The people who sell need it before they promise.

Delivery informs feasibility, sales informs demand, finance informs costs, operations informs continuity. No one trade holds the strategy alone. An internal supplier waiting for tickets leaves half the information out of the decision.

In a service business it is the same: capacity, equipment and the team's skills decide which offers are possible.

## Try this

For an upcoming decision, prepare one constraint and one option, with the people who know the build:

> "This option means changing ... A narrower version would allow ... We still need to check ..."

Put the cost of running it over time next to the cost of building it. Bring the note before the commitment. With no access to the meeting, send the note to whoever decides. After the call, write down the assumptions that guided the choice.

Early in your career, note one thing your work makes easy or hard for what comes next, and send it to your lead before the next planning meeting.

## To discuss

Which capability or constraint should enter our next decision before we commit?