[sholladay]

You blame the sales-oriented CEO for the problems but then point to a list of highly technical changes as the ultimate cause. A salesman knows nothing about these architecture decisions and would have trouble asking for them to be implemented even if they somehow knew it’s what they wanted to do.

Could a more technical CEO have turned the ship around more quickly? Sure. But let’s be honest, the blame rests at the feet of the engineering team. Someone got excited about using some new tech and didn’t fully consider the ramifications. This happens all the time. And if you’re lucky, the code review saves you, or if not then QA saves you, or if not then the beta testers save you. If a problem remains after that, then it tends to become really hard to undo, from an organization perspective.