Metadata
- Author: Adam Fishman
- Full Title:: Balancing Engineering Cultures: Debate Everything vs. Just Tell Me What to Build
- Category:: 🗞️Articles
- URL:: https://www.fishmanafnewsletter.com/p/balancing-engineering-cultures-debate-vs-do
- Finished date:: 2024-01-30
Highlights
Cultures that debate and challenge everything, even the smallest of considerations, without ever reaching resolution never manage to ship anything. Cultures that absolve themselves of debate entirely end up disempowered from the end outcome (and also don’t ship anything meaningful, even if they ship a lot from a volume perspective (View Highlight)
the same root cause of being disconnected from the outcome can lead to a culture of “just do what I’m told.” It’s a self-perpetuating problem; if you don’t expect engineers to be engaged in the outcome then you won’t hire people who are. (View Highlight)
The second root cause of “just do what I’m told” is related to fear of failure. If engineers are consistently blamed or called out for getting something wrong then eventually they won’t feel comfortable getting anything wrong anymore or having an opinion at all. If they just do what they’re told then that blame shifts to someone else. It’s not my fault, I was just doing what I was told. (View Highlight)
Without making it abundantly clear that the outcome is what matters you’ll get teams who focus more on being right or managing to their own careers than delivering something valuable, especially if PMs are handing down rigid requirements (this is another reason I believe Briefs > PRDs). (View Highlight)
quote (often attributed to Winston Churchill): “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all others.” (View Highlight)