3 ms·

It’s a little telling that 90% of what you describe is undoing the actions of other managers. :)

• sbarre 5y ago
  Ehh there are many layers of management, and the higher you go, the more detached and abstract things become. The idea that somehow the people "at the top" should have complete understanding and appreciation for all the details of all the roles under them is unrealistic. It is actually part of the job to advocate and bring the relevant understanding up the chain, and believe it or not, that knowledge is welcomed and appreciated in many cases. And you may have assumed (perhaps I did not write it well) that this knowledge is received grudgingly, but it is not. Good senior executives appreciate context and details (it is a skill to know which details to give), and it helps them make the right decisions. But companies are webs of competing priorities, and you don't get what you don't ask for. Features vs. tech debt for example is a good one. Senior management wants to make money (so we can all keep our jobs), so they want new features. That makes sense to them. They don't really get what tech debt is, because that's not their department, it's ours. So we explain why it's important to tackle tech debt from a business perspective, and long-term product health (security, performance, developer happiness, etc).. And then that helps them see the value of that work, and it allows us to prioritize it alongside new features, because now they understand why it's good for the business. If no one explains it to them, they won't know what they won't know, and they will just keep asking for features.