> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://engineering.umh.app/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://engineering.umh.app/product/product-manager/blocking.md).

# Blocking and the frustration bucket

When a customer request stops everything else, and who decides that.

Owner: Marius

**Work through each customer's frustration bucket regularly.** The bucket holds everything that customer has mentioned. Fix some of the things on it and tell the customer what you fixed.

**While a customer has a blocking bug, they stop caring about the rest of their list.** A bug is blocking when it stops a customer from getting business impact and there is no workaround. That is why blocking bugs go into a second bucket.

**A blocking bug does not wait for a pitch.** The Product Manager decides whether a request is blocking and marks it as important. That puts its ticket on [a list](https://linear.app/united-manufacturing-hub/view/customers-with-important-customer-requests-d3cf463d28be) (Linear, UMH only) we go through every morning in the [check-in](/culture/our-week.md#daily-check-in) and in every product meeting. In both, we first look for a workaround. Engineering can push back and offer one.

**We unblock the customer before we fix the cause.** Once the people affected say they can work again, the request is no longer important. We still fix it properly, as a normal rollout ticket or a normal bug fix.


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