[ajb]

I don't know, I feel like a lot of these laudatory adjectives like "scrappy" and "street smart" are often just ways to excuse product owners, designers and execs making crappy decisions and throwing them over the wall to engineers to sort out. YMMV, of course.

[neilv]

I suspect that a scrappy organization wouldn't have a wall to toss anything over.

If a wall did accidentally appear in a scrappy org, maybe the wall gets knocked over, and the trash collegially tossed back, with an offer to work together on something that will work?

Stereotypical lumbering bureaucracies can appropriate terms all day, and people mimicking them can also mimic their appropriations, and management books can be marketed, all while ignoring the actual useful meaning of the terms.

[ajb]

I think I'm taking about a different failure mode. To have a "wall" you don't need a large organisation, just leadership that has certain blindspots or beliefs that they don't allow to be challenged. (I know I'm being a bit vague, I can't go into the specifics unfortunately).

[neilv]

I might've heard of that kind of situation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35344635

[ajb]

Well, there's that, yes. But I think there can also be an excessive belief in the power of scrappiness and agility, that it can overcome any issue, so no actual consultation or forethought before committing the company is useful. Any pushback being dismissed as "big company thinking"

[neilv]

Definitely agreed. Variations on the word "agile" are too loaded and religious now, but I was hoping I could define "scrappy" how I want to, which at times includes shrewd planning. :)