Measure focus changes by closure, not by switching

A product team is not unfocused merely because priorities change. Classify a change as healthy adaptation when it has (1) new evidence, (2) an explicit decision, (3) a disposition for the previous bet—complete, pause, or continue—and (4) a named owner and evaluation trigger for the new path. Treat switching without those fields as unresolved WIP, not automatically as bad judgment.

Applicability and limits: this method helps audits that combine chat, work tracking and release evidence. Chat shows why a change happened, but cannot establish time allocation or product impact. Measure the work item or initiative, not message volume. Corroborate completion through the tracker, deployment records, production telemetry and customer/support recurrence.

Applies when: evaluating whether a product or engineering team is adapting to evidence or accumulating distraction. Keywords: product focus priority shifts initiative WIP closure evaluation ownership