Review turnaround

Slow review is a delivery bug. Reasonable norms on many teams: first response within one business day; blocking comments within a few hours for teammates waiting on you. If you cannot review deeply now, say so and suggest another reviewer — silence is worse.

As an author, ping after a clear wait, not after twenty minutes. As a reviewer, batch reviews a few times a day rather than context-switching every notification — but do not leave a stack of PRs overnight when people are blocked.

The big idea

Review is part of the critical path. A "I'll look later" that becomes three days is the same class of bug as a stuck deploy: work is waiting on you, and nobody can tell.

The analogy is a bridge with one toll booth. Throughput is the booth, not the cars. The analogy breaks for a 2,000-line design change that should wait for a huddle — say that, schedule it, and do not fake an LGTM to clear your inbox.

Walking through triage

Inbox zero on PRs is not always possible. Triage:

1. Blocking teammates / release train — review now.
2. Your team's risky areas (billing, auth, data) — high priority.
3. Docs and pure refactors — can wait a bit; still do not starve them.
4. FYI CCs — skim or drop if you are not the right owner.

If you only have ten minutes, spend them on design and correctness of the risky files, leave an honest partial review, and do not fake a full LGTM.

Useful team agreements:

• Target first response SLA (e.g. same business day).
• OWNERS or CODEOWNERS for risky paths — not as bureaucracy, as clear reviewers.
• Linters/formatters required in CI so humans never argue braces.
• "Nit" means optional; authors may merge without addressing nits after LGTM.
• Celebrate teaching reviews in retrospectives — multiplication is the point.

Track your own habits: time-to-first-comment, ratio of blocking vs nit, whether authors leave reviews smarter. Strong reviewers multiply the team; weak reviewers either stall delivery or let landmines through.

Common mistakes

• Silence. A redirect ("I can't today; try @sam") is a review. Ghosting is not.
• Twenty-minute pings. Wait a clear interval; then ping once with context.
• Overnight stacks while a teammate is blocked on a 40-line fix.

Check yourself

1. You cannot review a blocking PR today. What is the minimum honest response?

Say so, and name another reviewer — do not stay silent.

2. What is a reasonable first-response norm on many teams?

Within one business day; faster when a teammate is blocked.

Key takeaways

• First response is part of delivery, not a courtesy.
• Triage by blocker status and risk; never fake a full LGTM.
• Team SLAs, owners and linters beat heroics.

Further learning

Next: block vs approve.