PMP Practice: Outline Escalation Paths and Thresholds

Isabela Correa-Noriega is managing a project for Catalyst Drift Labs to develop a customer-facing AI chatbot for mental wellness. The executive sponsor wants monthly steering committee meetings with formal status reports, phase-gate approvals, and sign-offs at major milestones. However, user research shows that customer expectations around conversational AI are evolving rapidly, and the product team has discovered that early prototypes need significant pivots based on beta user feedback every two weeks. The development team is experienced with iterative delivery and prefers working in short cycles. The sponsor insists on predictable timelines and budget certainty for board reporting. What governance approach should Isabela establish?