No announcements until Engineering is confident on a delivery date - applied first to killing the Desktop announcement at SC26

Situation

Bjorn asked the Leadership Roundtable whether to announce Desktop at Supercomputing. Peter said no, and stated the rule rather than the verdict: not until we actually have designs and know what we are building and know we are going to get it. Peter confirmed in review that this is a general standing rule - CIQ does not do announcements until Engineering is confident on a delivery date - and that Desktop at SC26 is simply the first case it was applied to. December, which came up in the same exchange, is the ask from Product and Marketing rather than an Engineering estimate. Bjorn accepted immediately and substituted Stratum as the SC26 headline. Peter separately named Desktop designs as one of only two things he needs from Bjorn org, and Bjorn committed a newly hired designer to it.

Reasoning

An announcement is a commitment, and the org that has to make it true is Engineering, so the confidence that licenses the commitment has to be Engineering confidence rather than marketing appetite or a product wish date. Stating it as three escalating gates - designs exist, scope is known, delivery is credible - gives Marketing something falsifiable to plan against instead of a mood. He paired the refusal with the unblock: he named the missing artifact and asked the org that owns it to supply it, so the answer is priced rather than simply denied.

Additional Context

Lindsay Aamodt was writing SC26 messaging imminently and needed to know what is shipping beyond Stratum. Product and Marketing had been working a December date for Desktop. Desktop work sits with Nathan Blackham and is an open unassigned todo.

Observed Evidence

Direct exchange in the Leadership Roundtable, plus Peter generalising the rule in review: we do not do announcements until Eng is confident on a delivery date.

Matching Patterns

Confidence Breakdown

Reasoning Depth Analysis