[greghinch]

> I think that this is pretty status-quo (you're an engineer, not an idea guy/founder after all).

Er, no. A good leadership knows how to frame questions and let the engineers find the solutions. You don't come the engineering team with a solution already decided down to every last detail. It's what they're good at, after all, solving problems. Ideally you have someone who's leading the tech side who can call shots on the product AND work on the technical stuff.

Too many biz-dev types starting companies treat their engineers like code-monkey servants, to the detriment of the product and the company.

[badclient]

You don't come the engineering team with a solution already decided down to every last detail.

And you've already concluded that that is indeed what was going on at this start-up. Just from the mere use of the word "micromanaging"?

Too many biz-dev types starting companies treat their engineers like code-monkey servants, to the detriment of the product and the company.

Sorry, that might have been true a decade ago but today, everyone knows that engineering and coders rule the world at most start-ups. If anything, we may have gone too far to the other extreme where coders don't value a good business guy as much as they should.

[greghinch]

> And you've already concluded that that is indeed what was going on at this start-up. Just from the mere use of the word "micromanaging"?

Nope, I was responding directly to the parent of my comment, to the line I quoted, which was phrased to state that engineers have no business making product decisions.

> Sorry, that might have been true a decade ago but today, everyone knows that engineering and coders rule the world at most start-ups. If anything, we may have gone too far to the other extreme where coders don't value a good business guy as much as they should.

That may definitely be the case in a few firms in SV, but outside that little bubble, the rest of the world still often falls into the "old view", something akin to "management" and "labor"

[hef19898]

Both extremes are bad. What I'm really tired of, and I'm as far away from software and SV right now as you can probaly be, are people believing themselves being experts in X only because the work in company that's in the market of X, wether that's their job or not.

I for myself prefer to listen to people hat do the job while I expect people to listen to me when my job is concerned. If not, it's easy to interpret it as distrust.

So I agree with both points here.

[spamizbad]

Eh I'd say its a mixed bag today. I've run into startups that still grind their programmers into pulp trying to crank out product. And I've seen the opposite - where the engineering culture will veto genuinely good business opportunities because they're not up to the engineering challenge.

[greghinch]

And, you know, the ones in the middle that are actually successful because they have people who know how to balance both.