From Push to Pull

“The sooner you listen to real demand, the less you waste on imaginary needs.”
— JD Meier

Learn how shifting from a Push to Pull system reduces waste, shrinks backlogs, and helps you respond to real market demand instead of guessing at future needs.

Visualize the difference and rethink your strategy for faster, smarter flow.

Managing a big backlog can be a real pain.

Especially if you start to spend more time managing your backlog than executing it.

Work for the future can pile up and pile on fast.

One of the things I focused on to master execution at Microsoft is the art of the backlog.

The surprise is that rather than mastering your backlog, you can master from “push” to “pull.”

This changes the problem.

This simple shift helps shrink your backlog, while improving your flow and execution.

First, Quick Scene Setting:

• Push = You make work pile up in advance. You predict what people will need, you prep it, and you shove it down the pipeline.

• Pull = You only start the work when someone needs it. You react to actual demand.

This idea shows up everywhere — from factory floors to software development, and even how a kitchen at a busy restaurant works.

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Now, the Beautiful Dynamic:

1. Push systems naturally build backlogs

Because you’re guessing demand.
You push work based on what you think people will need next.

Problem:
You’re often wrong.

• You overproduce.

• You stockpile.

• You have lots of WIP (Work In Progress) sitting around, waiting, decaying, getting stale, needing rework.

High cost.
High waste.
Slower adaptation when needs change.

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2. Pull Systems Shrink (or eliminate) Backlogs

Because you don’t create work until it’s needed.

Result:

• No guessing.

• No pileups.

• Flow matches real demand.

• Little (or no) “inventory” of tasks or deliverables sitting around.

It forces and frees you to work on only what matters, right now.

Low waste.
Fast feedback.
Quick adjustments.

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Here’s the Core Principle:

The more you build a pull system, the less you have to push guesses into a backlog.

Because you’re responding to demand instead of predicting and pre-building work “just in case.”

In Kanban:

• Work items sit on the board, but they aren’t in progress.

• Nothing moves unless the next stage is ready to pull it.

• WIP limits make sure you can’t start too much at once.

So instead of building a massive backlog to “keep everyone busy,”
you control flow so work is done just-in-time.

Less backlogged crap.
More finished value.

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Super Simple Visual Metaphor:

Imagine two factories:

• Factory A (Push):
  It keeps building pizzas and stacking them, hoping people show up and eat them. Piles of pizza everywhere.

• Factory B (Pull/Kanban):
  It only starts making a pizza when someone orders. No pizza towers rotting in the back.

Which is more efficient?
Obviously B.

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Extra Real-World Bonus:

The best teams even pull planning just-in-time:

• Lightweight roadmap (strategic direction).

• Pull the next best thing when capacity is available.

• Tiny refinement sessions instead of giant backlogs needing maintenance.

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Bottom Line:

More pull → less backlog needed.
Flow beats forecast.
Pull is smarter because it’s closer to reality.

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