If you're venturing into what might turn out to be a tarpit, set tripwires.
- If you're venturing into what might turn out to be a tarpit, set tripwires.
- Agree as a group what it would look like in a month if the situation had obviously turned into a tarpit.
- List a number of metrics or things that could happen, any one of which would be obviously evidence of something being very off-track.
- Everyone thinking about the future can be sober.
- Make everyone take a blood oath to agree to pull out of the tarpit if any of the enumerated situations are true in a month.
- Then, look at that list in a month, and if any are true, no matter what, start a crash effort on an alternate approach with at least part of your team.