Project Background
HubSpot is replacing a legacy lead-routing service that supports inbound sales for its mid-market CRM product. The current system causes routing delays of up to 18 minutes during peak hours, and leadership wants a new rules engine launched before the start of Q4, when lead volume is forecast to increase by 35%.
You are the program manager for the migration. The delivery team includes 4 backend engineers, 2 frontend engineers, 1 data engineer, 1 QA lead, and 1 designer. You have 10 weeks to deliver, but the team has already committed roughly 30% of its capacity to production support and compliance work.
Key Stakeholders
The VP of Sales wants all enterprise routing features included at launch because missed leads affect quarterly revenue. The Engineering Director wants to reduce scope to protect reliability and avoid burnout. The Head of RevOps needs audit logs and admin controls for compliance reviews. Customer Success is pushing for zero workflow disruption for 200 pilot customers.
Constraints
- Timeline: 10 weeks, with launch required by September 30
- Budget: $120,000 remaining, including vendor testing and temporary contractor support
- Capacity: 9-person team, with only 6.3 FTE effectively available due to other commitments
- Dependencies: Salesforce integration upgrade due in Week 4; security review requires 7 business days; UAT needs 15 pilot customers committed by Week 6
- Scope candidates: 11 requested features, but engineering estimates only support 6-7 by the deadline
Complications
- One senior backend engineer is scheduled for planned leave during Weeks 7-8.
- Sales has already told two strategic customers that advanced territory routing will be available at launch, but that feature is estimated at 3 engineer-weeks and depends on the Week 4 Salesforce upgrade.
- A recent Sev-2 incident on the legacy system means leadership will not accept a launch without rollback and monitoring in place.
Your Task
- Propose how you would make scope trade-offs and decide what ships by September 30.
- Build a 10-week execution plan with milestones, dependencies, and owners.
- Define how you would align stakeholders with competing priorities and reset commitments if needed.
- Identify the top risks and mitigation plans, including coverage for the engineer's leave.
- Specify launch success metrics and a rollback/readiness plan.
