Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jotato 1034 days ago
One thing I'll add - or maybe it expands on too technical of a leader - is when a brilliant outside hire is brought in to fill the arch/principal/whatever role.

Then they start looking at the app and questioning every decision calling everything they don't have context on "technical debt"

I've seen it a few times. I told a new VP of Eng he was being asinine because he wasn't there for the original problem, decision, or timeline and saying we made a bad call is just showing ignorance.

Thankfully, He pulled me aside later to thank me and asked for more background on it. After hearing the whole story he agreed. We did the right thing.

Now, that could have gone the other way. And I've seen it happen. When it does, it sucks.
4 comments
Aurornis 1034 days ago
It sounds like the VP Eng was actually a great leader if he could take feedback like that in stride and admit when he was wrong. Bad leaders would have dug in their heels and sidelined the person with abrasive feedback (you).
link
jotato 1034 days ago
Absolutely. My point is that it doesn't always go that way. He had his faults, but he could take string feedback. If I recall, he said something to the effect of "not many people speak to me like that. I forget how helpful it is to be challenged"
link
samhuk 1034 days ago
I agree with sibling comment.

Also, wow, that took some courage. Personally, I deeply value this way of direct communication when everybody feels free to speak up when things go wrong, and nobody has precious egos they feel need protecting.

link
p_l 1034 days ago
Sometimes it goes the other way around. New people hired from bigger company, advocating for solutions that are known to work if painful to start, opposed by "old guard" who finds nothing bad in their hundreds of SSH windows with root logins into machines and where the "technical debt" is actually reaching the point where it will result in losing important clients through a legal statute impacting said technical debt
link
OJFord 1034 days ago
It could go the other way though, to be along the the ride and hope for the 'brilliant outside hire' to come along and point out the problems.
link