3 ms·

Ask HN: Wrote a small thing which grew and became very popular, and I'm sick of it

7 points by GuiA 10y ago

Hi HN, I work for a (very) large company. A while back, I wrote an internal tool for some fairly specific, niche (albeit quite important) internal need. What started as something used by 3 people blew up over the past year into something on which dozens (if not hundreds at this point) of people rely on, and that supports some critical needs inside the company. The small tool grew from a few hundred lines of code into a complete environment with tooling for non programmers, etc. I'm currently managing 3 engineers who develop the whole thing, and I'm running around playing PM - answering emails, spec'ing out work, being pulled into meetings, and so on. (I'm not officially their manager, but my manager assigned them to me) If this project were a startup, right now we'd definitely be into the "hockey stick growth" part of the curve. The thing is that I completely and utterly hate it. What drives is learning, research, becoming a better programmer/designer, and working on cool things - not managing a full blown software project with all the QA, release planning, etc. that's involved. I've given many evenings and weekends to this thing over the past few months, and am nearing complete burn out (I started losing hair, actually). I've been at the company for much longer than the lifespan of this project - I am a R&D engineer whose job is to explore various avenues for prototype hardware. I'd like to detach myself from what I've created without causing my entire management chain (this has gotten executive attention) to hate me. Have you experienced this in the past? What is your advice for dealing with such a situation? I already have some thoughts of my own, but would love to hear external perspectives.

AnimalMuppet 10y ago
I have not had this experience, so my advice is somewhat theoretical. How is your relationship with your management? Can you tell them, "Look, I'm an R&D person, not a manager. You need to find someone else to manage this, who actually knows how to manage stuff, and let me get back to my real work." Would they listen if you said something like that?
mswen 10y ago
Obviously you need to have a heart to heart conversation with your boss about the personal toll that this is taking on you and that you need to return to your first love, that is R&D. Don't wait until you are so frustrated that you have your resignation letter already written. Start the conversation now if you haven't already. Reassure the boss that this doesn't need to happen overnight but that it does need to happen within X months. Otherwise you might get a combination of praise, bonuses and guilt that just keeps stringing you along in the same position for a couple more years. How to minimize risk for the company while releasing you to do what you really enjoy? My first thought is to groom someone to be the product manager. Ideally, one of the 3 engineers you are already managing. If none of them have desire & ability to PM the software then start the process to hire a replacement from elsewhere in the company or from outside. Start to prepare for a smooth hand-off. Make sure the house is in order: [1]solid documentation [2] version control [3] bug tracking and resolution [4] comprehensive user lists [5] mapping out of business and technical stakeholders [6] dependencies - data, software, systems and operations [7] engineer duties and strengths documented [8] features both committed road map and wish list When you feel like the house is in order start pushing the transition hard from your side to move it along. Because at that point, you can say with good conscience, "everything is ready for a smooth hand-off and I have done everything I can to minimize risk." Finally, your boss and maybe her boss needs to understand how you will continue to contribute to the growth and efficiency of the company. You need to create a narrative that emphasizes how much value was also created by your R&D work and will be created once again when your life is not consumed by this one project that turned into a product. Hope you are able to make the transition that you need without having to quit the company.
pedalpete 10y ago
I agree with the other comments suggesting you need to speak with your managers, but I'll go one further. I too work for an R&D organization (CSIRO). Last year I was moved out of development into a management position by my boss because they felt I would be more useful in a Product/Project management role. The interesting thing was during the discussion, my boss outlined how R&D people aren't developers, developers aren't managers and that managers aren't R&D people. Your manager likely understands this, but wanted to give you a shot at running the project you created. In the early days, you may be the best person to maintain it as you saw the potential and likely had great insight and vision. This is also seen in start-ups where many early start-up CEOs can't make the transition from discovery to growth. They can get the company to the early stage of growth, but then in comes a growth focused CEO to lead the next stage. I also have a friend who only joins companies at this stage, and takes them from < 20 employees to > 100. This is the same as launching a rocket. The booster that gets you to the outer atmosphere doesn't get you into space. All of this is to say, you may have a fear that your manager thinks this is the job that you should be doing, but don't be surprised to hear management is aware of the challenges, but doesn't want to take away your baby before you're ready to give it up.

7 points by GuiA 10y ago

AnimalMuppet 10y ago

I have not had this experience, so my advice is somewhat theoretical. How is your relationship with your management? Can you tell them, "Look, I'm an R&D person, not a manager. You need to find someone else to manage this, who actually knows how to manage stuff, and let me get back to my real work." Would they listen if you said something like that?

mswen 10y ago

Obviously you need to have a heart to heart conversation with your boss about the personal toll that this is taking on you and that you need to return to your first love, that is R&D. Don't wait until you are so frustrated that you have your resignation letter already written. Start the conversation now if you haven't already. Reassure the boss that this doesn't need to happen overnight but that it does need to happen within X months. Otherwise you might get a combination of praise, bonuses and guilt that just keeps stringing you along in the same position for a couple more years. How to minimize risk for the company while releasing you to do what you really enjoy? My first thought is to groom someone to be the product manager. Ideally, one of the 3 engineers you are already managing. If none of them have desire & ability to PM the software then start the process to hire a replacement from elsewhere in the company or from outside. Start to prepare for a smooth hand-off. Make sure the house is in order: [1]solid documentation [2] version control [3] bug tracking and resolution [4] comprehensive user lists [5] mapping out of business and technical stakeholders [6] dependencies - data, software, systems and operations [7] engineer duties and strengths documented [8] features both committed road map and wish list When you feel like the house is in order start pushing the transition hard from your side to move it along. Because at that point, you can say with good conscience, "everything is ready for a smooth hand-off and I have done everything I can to minimize risk." Finally, your boss and maybe her boss needs to understand how you will continue to contribute to the growth and efficiency of the company. You need to create a narrative that emphasizes how much value was also created by your R&D work and will be created once again when your life is not consumed by this one project that turned into a product. Hope you are able to make the transition that you need without having to quit the company.

pedalpete 10y ago

I agree with the other comments suggesting you need to speak with your managers, but I'll go one further. I too work for an R&D organization (CSIRO). Last year I was moved out of development into a management position by my boss because they felt I would be more useful in a Product/Project management role. The interesting thing was during the discussion, my boss outlined how R&D people aren't developers, developers aren't managers and that managers aren't R&D people. Your manager likely understands this, but wanted to give you a shot at running the project you created. In the early days, you may be the best person to maintain it as you saw the potential and likely had great insight and vision. This is also seen in start-ups where many early start-up CEOs can't make the transition from discovery to growth. They can get the company to the early stage of growth, but then in comes a growth focused CEO to lead the next stage. I also have a friend who only joins companies at this stage, and takes them from < 20 employees to > 100. This is the same as launching a rocket. The booster that gets you to the outer atmosphere doesn't get you into space. All of this is to say, you may have a fear that your manager thinks this is the job that you should be doing, but don't be surprised to hear management is aware of the challenges, but doesn't want to take away your baby before you're ready to give it up.