There are weird corner cases sure, but not enough that you can't deal with individually. I think that's where a lot of organizations fail. Take the "Technical

There are weird corner cases sure, but not enough that you can't deal with individually. I think that's where a lot of organizations fail. Take the "Technical Fellow" I mentioned earlier. This is the "weird corner case" - a technical IC who is capable of contributing strategically but has no interest in management. The people in this role generally have ~20 years in industry and most have advanced degrees. They're some of the smartest people I know. They have the people skills to manage, but little interest (or rather, prefer to stay purely technical). Without the technical fellow role, they would have likely moved into management after 10-15 years and moved into director positions, at a loss to the company. Or, they'd dead end as senior devs at a lower salary and not have a voice with senior management. My employer has 3500 employees (across all BUs). There are fewer than 10 technical fellows.