Team Departure Impact on Roadmap

Subject: Q3 Roadmap at Risk - Developer Attrition Decision Needed This Week

Hi [VP Engineering],

I’m writing to escalate a team situation requiring your decision by end of this week.

SITUATION:
Three key developers have submitted resignations over the past two weeks. All three are critical contributors to our Q3 roadmap deliverables.

IMPACT:

• Q3 roadmap contains 8 committed features currently staffed based on full team capacity
• These three developers represent approximately 40% of Q3 engineering capacity
• Without mitigation: 3-5 features will miss Q3 deadlines
• Customer commitments and stakeholder expectations at risk

ROOT CAUSE:
Market compensation increases have made our current compensation packages non-competitive. Counter-offers were attempted but could not match external offers within our current compensation bands.

ACTIONS TAKEN:

• Extended counter-offers to all three developers (declined)
• Evaluated internal team members for skill/capacity reallocation (insufficient coverage)
• Researched contractor availability and costs (detailed below)

OPTIONS FOR RESOLUTION:

Option A: Hire Contractors (Full Coverage)

• Timeline: 2-3 weeks to onboard contractors
• Cost: $80K for Q3 period (July-September)
• Benefit: Maintains Q3 roadmap commitments, preserves team velocity
• Risk: Onboarding overhead, contractor ramp-up time may still cause 2-3 week feature delays
• Impact on Q3: 6-7 features delivered (80% of roadmap)

Option B: Delay Features to Q4

• Timeline: Immediate communication required to stakeholders
• Cost: $0
• Benefit: No budget impact, realistic staffing levels
• Risk: Stakeholder trust erosion, potential customer commitment breaches
• Impact on Q3: 3-4 features delivered (50% of roadmap), 4-5 features slip to Q4

Option C: Pull Engineers from Other Teams

• Timeline: Immediate reallocation possible
• Cost: $0 direct cost, delays other team’s Q3 deliverables
• Benefit: Internal knowledge continuity, no contractor overhead
• Risk: Creates cascading delays across organization, impacts other VP commitments
• Impact on Q3: 5-6 features delivered (70% of roadmap), other teams slip their timelines

RECOMMENDATION:
I recommend Option A (hire contractors) based on:

1. Customer commitments: We have explicit Q3 delivery commitments to enterprise customers
2. Organizational credibility: Maintaining roadmap reliability preserves stakeholder trust
3. Cost justification: $80K investment protects potentially higher revenue at risk from delivery failures
4. Strategic positioning: Keeps other teams on track while we address underlying compensation issues

DECISION NEEDED:
Approval to proceed with $80K contractor spend to cover Q3 capacity gap. Without this decision by Friday, we need to immediately notify stakeholders of Q3 roadmap reductions.

TIMELINE IF APPROVED:

• This week: Contract engagement, begin contractor sourcing
• Week of Dec 9: Contractor onboarding begins
• Week of Dec 16: Contractors at productive capacity
• Q3 (through Sept): Deliver 6-7 of 8 committed features

NEXT STEPS AFTER DECISION:

• Option A approved: I’ll initiate contractor engagement and provide weekly status updates
• Option B or C selected: I’ll prepare stakeholder communication and revised Q3 roadmap within 48 hours
• Any option: I recommend we schedule discussion on compensation band adjustments to prevent further attrition

Available immediately to discuss these options or provide additional detail.

[Your name]