Project Context
Beacon Talent is preparing a major update to Beacon Outreach, the recruiter-facing workflow used to build candidate pipelines, send outreach, and track replies. The release combines three workstreams: bulk outreach scheduling, inbox sync reliability fixes, and a new approval flow for agency clients. You are the Engineering Manager for a team of 9 engineers, 1 EM, 1 PM, and shared QA support, and leadership wants the release shipped in 8 weeks because two enterprise renewals depend on it.
Key Stakeholders
The VP of Product wants all three workstreams in the launch to support Q3 revenue goals. The Head of Customer Success wants reliability improvements prioritized because support tickets on inbox sync have increased 18% over the last quarter. The Sales Director has already previewed the approval flow to two large prospects and is pushing for a fixed ship date. The Staff Engineer is concerned that the current test suite is flaky and that the team is carrying too much release risk.
Constraints
- Timeline: 8 weeks to production, with no extension approved
- Team capacity: 9 engineers, but 2 are allocated 30% to production support
- Budget: $60,000 for contractor QA and tooling improvements
- Quality baseline: P0 defects must be zero at launch; P1 defects must be under 3 in the first 14 days
- Dependency: Beacon Integrations team must deliver the inbox sync API changes by the end of Week 4
Complications
- The Beacon Integrations team is already signaling a possible 1-week slip on the API dependency.
- One senior engineer who owns the approval flow will be on planned leave during Week 6.
- Support data shows inbox sync issues are hurting NPS, but the approval flow is the biggest driver of near-term revenue.
Deliverables
- Build an 8-week execution plan that shows how you would ship reliably without sacrificing quality.
- Define what you would cut, phase, or de-risk if timelines tighten.
- Propose launch criteria, rollback criteria, and post-launch monitoring.
- Identify the top risks, owners, and mitigation triggers.
- Explain how you would align stakeholders with competing priorities and keep commitments credible.
