Your project has grown. Features crept in. "Nice to haves" became "must haves." Now you're behind schedule, over budget, and nobody remembers what the core value was supposed to be.
List Everything
Write down every feature, requirement, and deliverable on the list. All of them. Don't judge yet. Get it all visible.
Identify The Core Job
In one sentence: what is this project supposed to do? What's the single most important outcome? Write it at the top. This is your razor.
Apply The Razor
For each item, ask: "Does this directly serve the core job?" Be honest. "Indirectly" is usually "no." Mark items as IN or OUT.
Force Rank The INs
Stack rank everything still in. No ties allowed. Position 1 is what you'd ship if you could only ship one thing. Position 2 is what you'd add next.
Draw The Line
Given your timeline and resources, where's the cutoff? Everything below the line becomes "v2" or "never." Move it to a parking lot and forget it for now.
Communicate The New Scope
Tell stakeholders what's in and what's out. Be specific. No "we'll try to fit it in." That's how scope creep starts again.
A focused scope that can actually ship. A clear priority order. A parking lot of "not now" items that won't sneak back in. And a team that knows exactly what matters.
This works when you have authority over the scope. When every stakeholder has a "must have," when the scope is contractual, when cutting means political warfare: that's a different conversation.