[tonyarkles]

> A change that engineers have been asking for might seem ok, but in actuality would destroy margins or otherwise be detrimental to the company as a whole if you look at broader information that might not be available to the engineers

As someone who has been on both sides of this, the best advice I have for a manager in that situation is "if you say no, tell them why." As someone in a senior engineering role, to me, it's my responsibility to understand the forces at play with the product I'm developing, so that I can do my job. I accepted a long time ago that engineering is not just about being technically excellent, but also understanding how the product fits into the business. If the answer to engineering recommendations is just a flat "no", then that probably means that there's information that is keeping me from doing my job to my full capacity; I don't just throw out ideas without thinking about them, I take all of the facts that I have and come up with cost-effective solutions.