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This only works when you’re able to hire the best of the best people, that are able to weigh both business and technical concerns against each other.

josephg 2y ago
In my experience, most people I’ve worked with have a lot more capacity than they show at work. Who knows what your people are capable of if you empower your people to fix their own problems and treat them like adults? I’m sure they won’t all be able to step up to the plate, but it’s amazing how much of a difference the right corporate culture makes to the psychology of your employees. For example, in my experience, people will only take initiative if they believe that they’ll get support from their team and manager for doing so. If not, they’ll bitch and moan about how bad things are but if you suggest fixing things, they’ll insist that change is impossible.
- stingraycharles 2y ago
  You are lucky you worked with those kind of people. A lot of the businesses I consult for have very mediocre teams (that’s why they need external help), and if they would decide what’s best for the business they wouldn’t get anything done that adds value to the business. These aren’t even necessarily large businesses, a lot of startups that are not doing high tech work (eg they “just” have an app or equivalent, and leadership is very strong commercially) have these kind of teams, and these developers would run the business into the ground if they would be dictating their leadership what to work on. Again, it isn’t a bad idea, it’s just something that only works when you have a lot of senior engineers that have experience with sales/commercial aspects. Alternatively, it’s an already very much established business, with lots of processes and management layers, but in those cases these processes and management layers are designed as a safety net against poor business decisions from developers.

josephg 2y ago

In my experience, most people I’ve worked with have a lot more capacity than they show at work. Who knows what your people are capable of if you empower your people to fix their own problems and treat them like adults? I’m sure they won’t all be able to step up to the plate, but it’s amazing how much of a difference the right corporate culture makes to the psychology of your employees. For example, in my experience, people will only take initiative if they believe that they’ll get support from their team and manager for doing so. If not, they’ll bitch and moan about how bad things are but if you suggest fixing things, they’ll insist that change is impossible.

stingraycharles 2y ago
You are lucky you worked with those kind of people. A lot of the businesses I consult for have very mediocre teams (that’s why they need external help), and if they would decide what’s best for the business they wouldn’t get anything done that adds value to the business. These aren’t even necessarily large businesses, a lot of startups that are not doing high tech work (eg they “just” have an app or equivalent, and leadership is very strong commercially) have these kind of teams, and these developers would run the business into the ground if they would be dictating their leadership what to work on. Again, it isn’t a bad idea, it’s just something that only works when you have a lot of senior engineers that have experience with sales/commercial aspects. Alternatively, it’s an already very much established business, with lots of processes and management layers, but in those cases these processes and management layers are designed as a safety net against poor business decisions from developers.