My team (4 people) have just reached a major milestone in our development, putting us at about 2/3 finished, but I guess the stress has caught up to everyone and all the gears have ground to a near halt, progess is being made at 1/5 of the original speed. I wanted to ask the SO community how to best deal with this, I've identified the following problems.
Lack of clear focus and direction. We seem to be hitting small side improvements, but not working towards anything central to the project so I think that's causing a lack of enthusiasm.
Coming down off of a very strong development push. This seems to have made everyone want to really "relax" which is fine for a bit, but progress still needs to be made.
The remaining tasks are more tedious than glamorous. This is the nature of the beast but I have yet to tame it effectively.
Any help is appreciated.
Some downtime is necessary after reaching major milestones. People need to relax and decompress. Pushing on just carries the stress and fatigue forward and the team won't be working anywhere near their potential.
Give everyone a couple days to a week off and let them come back fully refreshed and ready to continue.