Winter has a way of exposing weak systems.
Pipes freeze.
Roads fail.
Schedules fall apart.
It’s rarely because someone didn’t work hard enough.
It’s because the system assumed ideal conditions.
Software systems behave the same way.
Everything looks fine when volume is low, timelines are loose, and the same people are always around to remember how things work. But pressure has a way of finding the gaps.
When a workflow isn’t truly end to end, people compensate.
They remember steps.
They handle exceptions manually.
They become the glue holding things together.
That works, until it doesn’t.
Winter doesn’t create the problems.
It reveals them.
Strong systems assume disruption.
They don’t rely on heroics.
They don’t depend on institutional memory to function.
As we head toward spring, it’s a good reminder that the most important work often happens before anyone notices. Quiet decisions. Boring fundamentals. Design choices that matter when conditions aren’t perfect.
Those are the systems that last.