[anders30]

Last year, an Innovation Hero championed a completely new build system based on their homegrown version of asdf, essentially.

I was the one who had to stay late multiple Fridays making sure our Formal Builds would still work. I've been working to roll back the least well executed portions of this innovation for the past year because it doubled the amount of time required to release our software in the last stages of the pipeline (which was already five days, another rant, I work at VeryBigCo on a mixed HW/SW product).

I believe in this story the entrepreneur referenced worked to clear all similar hurdles, but it's hard to feel bad for folks who view themselves as Innovation Heroes when in many cases they're applying solutions in search of a problem. It's also very not fun to be "that person" aka "The Adult in the Room".

Yes, today the "Innovation" is part of our processes, but in stripped down form and it cost us two missed formal builds with the corresponding loss of credibility in our customer's eyes... in addition to my own sour grapes and missed dinners with my kid. It also cost me a personal friendship with the hero (my fault, but it's really hard for me to get past the fact this individual put their ego over my time with my family).

Agree it's a sign of a dysfunctional organization but it goes both ways. As an Innovation Hero, you should be aghast at how inefficient your org is, but as a part of that org, you should stop and ask, "How did we get this way and am I sure my solution truly solves all aspects of this situation?"