I encountered a similar situation at a tiny startup. The VP of Engineering was hired by the board, against the founder's will, and he was a disaster. Our main m

I encountered a similar situation at a tiny startup. The VP of Engineering was hired by the board, against the founder's will, and he was a disaster. Our main metric was measured by a graph, showing foobars/second. Similar to the linked story, there were lots of off-schedule tasks, and the VP was focused on shallow features instead of fundamentals. One of those features was i18n, apparently because his girlfriend was the consultant on i18n. We kept missing deadline after deadline, and it was starting to become apparent, even to the board. The board sent the most technical board member to talk to us to see if the team and architecture were plausible, the founder unilaterally fired the VP, and hired the guy he wanted all along. Things turned around instantly, once the new VP focused on the right things. Five years later, company was sold and now, nine years later, the product still exists at the acquiring company.