4 ms·

> i had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. Why are companies seeing it

by abeppu 7mo ago

> i had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. Why are companies seeing it purely in terms of "we can work with a smaller team so we must" and not "my existing team can do so much more"?

mkozlows 7mo ago
Depends on the company, but I think it's fair to say that not every company has a roadmap to infinite growth.
- abeppu 7mo ago
  ... but you have a staff that can come up with ideas, and now you can say yes to more of them. "Infinite growth" framing is asking a lot, but for most of my career, I've seen teams, departments or companies solicit ideas of what to do next quarter/year/whatever, and really aggressively winnow it down -- in large part b/c there weren't enough people to do it (and we could only afford so many people). And we were _bad_ at prioritizing; we'd often have like a list of multiple things declared P0 and a longer list of things called P1, and a stack of stuff that didn't make the cut to maybe revisit in the future. But if the same number of people can build and ship and iterate faster, then why not do more?
  - Skunkleton 7mo ago
    My experience is that "asking staff for ideas" does not lead to successful products. Sometimes, sure, but in general it does not.
    - abeppu 7mo ago
      I've never seen a roadmap planning process that didn't involve some component of asking departments and teams what needs to be done. To the extent you have successful products, it's because you have product managers and engineers and data scientists and depending on the product, integration/forward deployed staff. These should be the people with a view to how the product needs to meet the needs of future customers, the challenges faced by existing customers, and the technical components needed to get there. I'm not saying you encourage them to just spitball ideas from ignorance, I'm saying you solicit their expertise on the limits and needs of your products, systems, tools, processes, messaging etc.
      - Skunkleton 7mo ago
        This depends on your goals. If your goal is to drive efficiency into your processes, drive down tech debt, or fix pain points for customers of your existing products, sure. Most people at a your company with have thoughts, and lots of them will have good ideas. If your goal is to pivot the company into new verticals, or to develop an entirely new product, then "asking staff for ideas" isn't a likely way to succeed.
        Skunkleton 7mo ago
        I didn't add a why. Here is why. Most of the staff doesn't have the visibility into the business to understand what may or may not make money. You can have a great idea, even on that could be a successful product, but it could still be a bad fit for the business.
  - mkozlows 7mo ago
    You can say yes to more of them, _but they still need to be worth it._ If you have an infinite well of ideas to grow your business, awesome. But there are a lot of companies that just don't have those ideas, where their growth is limited on some other factor related to the market they're in.
Nifty3929 7mo ago
There is not always a lot more to do. If your business is making typewriters then what? Or you mine coal that nobody wants to use anymore? These companies could spin up entirely new lines of business, but why? It's much better for someone else to start that business and hire the best people for it. There is no reason why businesses must continue growing, or even existing - even if they are run well and profitably. The universe changes, and business come and go to align with that.
dntrkv 7mo ago
This has nothing to do with AI or any of that shit. Their stock price has been flat for like 4 years and they have no advantage in this new AI world that would change that. These layoffs would have happened AI or not.

by abeppu 7mo ago

mkozlows 7mo ago

Depends on the company, but I think it's fair to say that not every company has a roadmap to infinite growth.

abeppu 7mo ago
... but you have a staff that can come up with ideas, and now you can say yes to more of them. "Infinite growth" framing is asking a lot, but for most of my career, I've seen teams, departments or companies solicit ideas of what to do next quarter/year/whatever, and really aggressively winnow it down -- in large part b/c there weren't enough people to do it (and we could only afford so many people). And we were _bad_ at prioritizing; we'd often have like a list of multiple things declared P0 and a longer list of things called P1, and a stack of stuff that didn't make the cut to maybe revisit in the future. But if the same number of people can build and ship and iterate faster, then why not do more?
- Skunkleton 7mo ago
  My experience is that "asking staff for ideas" does not lead to successful products. Sometimes, sure, but in general it does not.
  - abeppu 7mo ago
    I've never seen a roadmap planning process that didn't involve some component of asking departments and teams what needs to be done. To the extent you have successful products, it's because you have product managers and engineers and data scientists and depending on the product, integration/forward deployed staff. These should be the people with a view to how the product needs to meet the needs of future customers, the challenges faced by existing customers, and the technical components needed to get there. I'm not saying you encourage them to just spitball ideas from ignorance, I'm saying you solicit their expertise on the limits and needs of your products, systems, tools, processes, messaging etc.
    - Skunkleton 7mo ago
      This depends on your goals. If your goal is to drive efficiency into your processes, drive down tech debt, or fix pain points for customers of your existing products, sure. Most people at a your company with have thoughts, and lots of them will have good ideas. If your goal is to pivot the company into new verticals, or to develop an entirely new product, then "asking staff for ideas" isn't a likely way to succeed.
      - Skunkleton 7mo ago
        I didn't add a why. Here is why. Most of the staff doesn't have the visibility into the business to understand what may or may not make money. You can have a great idea, even on that could be a successful product, but it could still be a bad fit for the business.
- mkozlows 7mo ago
  You can say yes to more of them, _but they still need to be worth it._ If you have an infinite well of ideas to grow your business, awesome. But there are a lot of companies that just don't have those ideas, where their growth is limited on some other factor related to the market they're in.

Nifty3929 7mo ago

There is not always a lot more to do. If your business is making typewriters then what? Or you mine coal that nobody wants to use anymore? These companies could spin up entirely new lines of business, but why? It's much better for someone else to start that business and hire the best people for it. There is no reason why businesses must continue growing, or even existing - even if they are run well and profitably. The universe changes, and business come and go to align with that.

dntrkv 7mo ago

This has nothing to do with AI or any of that shit. Their stock price has been flat for like 4 years and they have no advantage in this new AI world that would change that. These layoffs would have happened AI or not.