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I like to think that if your idea is truly good: It's your responsability to gather data, calculate metrics, do small tests and to find an iterative and lean wa

by napo 10y ago

I like to think that if your idea is truly good: It's your responsability to gather data, calculate metrics, do small tests and to find an iterative and lean way to implement it. It's hard, and in reallity intuition in itself can be quite powerful, but in a company it's all about measuring what is the best next move.

wingi 10y ago
The base idea of the article explains: Why to invest into risky thing when the daily business works? You will never change the game but you can also sucessful.
halomru 10y ago
That sounds much closer to the definition of management than to my job description.
- inlined 10y ago
  I find that most engineers overestimate the portion of their job that can be satisfied by technical skill alone. Dale Carnegie states in the preface of "How to win Friends and Influence People" that even in fields as technical as engineering only 15% of job success is purely technical. If you have a truly good idea--one you think should go up the management chain--how much are you willing to handcuff yourself by your job description? Fwiw, I've always interpreted the vague "technical leadership" parts of senior eng job descriptions to encompass exactly this. Leading people is a lot more than just telling them where to go.
humanrebar 10y ago
> ...in a company it's all about measuring what is the best next move. The article mentions a $10M investment that could be worth $1B in the future? I think you can explain your estimate and justify it as reasonable, but you can't measure it. Not really. If the company requires measurements to prove success, they're really just interested in the short term. Or they have double standards around what counts as good evidence, giving a pass to the status quo.
onion2k 10y ago
That means any idea that could be a huge benefit has to come from someone who also has the skills to research and execute it. That's going to be a huge barrier to innovation, and it could potentially cost the business a huge amount of money.
- wastedhours 10y ago
  On the flip side, how many great ideas inside a company come from people just spitballing and who have no idea on the implementation side? Perhaps some game-changing things come through that way, but for most "everyday innovation" it'll be people with a fresh mindset, but that enhanced context that comes from knowing how they'd tackle it (i.e. if they don't have the execution skills, then the ability to research and propose).
conradfr 10y ago
How do I fit that into my micro-managed dsm'ed scrum day ?

by napo 10y ago

wingi 10y ago

The base idea of the article explains: Why to invest into risky thing when the daily business works? You will never change the game but you can also sucessful.

halomru 10y ago

That sounds much closer to the definition of management than to my job description.

inlined 10y ago
I find that most engineers overestimate the portion of their job that can be satisfied by technical skill alone. Dale Carnegie states in the preface of "How to win Friends and Influence People" that even in fields as technical as engineering only 15% of job success is purely technical. If you have a truly good idea--one you think should go up the management chain--how much are you willing to handcuff yourself by your job description? Fwiw, I've always interpreted the vague "technical leadership" parts of senior eng job descriptions to encompass exactly this. Leading people is a lot more than just telling them where to go.

humanrebar 10y ago

> ...in a company it's all about measuring what is the best next move. The article mentions a $10M investment that could be worth $1B in the future? I think you can explain your estimate and justify it as reasonable, but you can't measure it. Not really. If the company requires measurements to prove success, they're really just interested in the short term. Or they have double standards around what counts as good evidence, giving a pass to the status quo.

onion2k 10y ago

That means any idea that could be a huge benefit has to come from someone who also has the skills to research and execute it. That's going to be a huge barrier to innovation, and it could potentially cost the business a huge amount of money.

wastedhours 10y ago
On the flip side, how many great ideas inside a company come from people just spitballing and who have no idea on the implementation side? Perhaps some game-changing things come through that way, but for most "everyday innovation" it'll be people with a fresh mindset, but that enhanced context that comes from knowing how they'd tackle it (i.e. if they don't have the execution skills, then the ability to research and propose).

conradfr 10y ago

How do I fit that into my micro-managed dsm'ed scrum day ?