# Come back a month later
Ownership · practice · https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/06-02-come-back-a-month-later.html

## The starting point

A change is shipped. The next piece of work is planned, but nobody has chosen when or how to look at its effect.

## The move

At delivery, set a date to look at the effect, with a precise question and an owner.

## Why it works

A team builds a dashboard and keeps adding to it for months, without ever asking whether it helps the meeting it was built for. One question at the right time would have saved that work.

The right moment depends on the use. A sales offer is looked at after the first quotes go out; a monthly report, after its cycle; a rarely used protection, during an exercise. A month is a bearing.

Look at the numbers that answer your question: use, lead time, errors, requests. Add a conversation with someone who uses it, to learn why the number is what it is.

You cannot recheck everything. Choose what carries an upcoming decision or a real risk.

## Try this

Choose a recent change that matters. Write one precise question, for instance:

> "At the next meeting, does this table help make the decision it was for? What is missing?"

Put the date in your calendar now. On that day, look, write down the answer, and decide: keep, change or remove.

If the work goes to a client or another team, out of your reach, set the question and the date at delivery, with whoever takes it over. Put it in both calendars.

## To discuss

Which change shipped this month still has no date to look at its effect?