“Is this on track?” is the question leaders ask when they don’t have a clear view — and engineers dread because the real answer is “it depends.”
At a B2B startup, our invite feature kept slipping. Every stand-up felt like a rerun. Product wanted a date. Engineering saw unknowns. We wrote a one-page trust contract. The noise dropped in a week.
What’s a trust contract?
It’s a short agreement between product and engineering about how we work, how we communicate, and how we decide.
No legalese. Just clarity.
The six clauses
- Outcomes first: We agree on what changes for the customer.
- Small slices: We ship in steps we can measure.
- Honest timelines: We include discovery and unknowns.
- Visibility by default: Demos beat status reports.
- Decision log: We write down the big calls.
- Retros: We improve one thing every cycle.
Cadence that builds trust
- Weekly demo: Show progress, not promises.
- Bi-weekly planning: Pick slices that fit the next window.
- Monthly retro: One improvement we actually try.
A one-week before/after
Before: “It’s complicated.” No demo. A long status doc nobody read.
After: A 90-second demo showed “Owner can invite one teammate via email.” Two bugs. Clear next slice. Confidence up.
Green flags (you’re in a good place)
- You can explain the next release in one sentence.
- You see real screens every week.
- Risks are named early and calmly.
- Engineers ask clarifying questions, not just for permission.
Red flags (fix these first)
- Surprise scope quietly added mid-cycle
- Vague goals like “improve performance” with no measure
- “It’s complicated” used to end conversations
- Long status docs without a single demo
A simple template to copy
- Goal: “Customers can invite teammates in under 30 seconds.”
- Slice 1: “Owner can send one email invite.”
- Demo date: “Next Friday”
- Measure: “Invite sent and accepted”
- Risks: “Email deliverability; rate limits”
- Review: “Two weeks—decide on bulk invite”
What this looks like in practice
- Product writes the outcome; Engineering proposes the slice.
- A tiny PR ships behind a feature flag; demo replaces the status update.
- The decision log records the tradeoffs; the retro picks one improvement.
Trust is a byproduct of steady, visible progress. Write the contract once. Keep the promises often.