The place was pretty thin and transparent until that last layer, and that was a block of personality (the CEO really wasn't all that interested in our input).
Granted, the strong opinions at the top were a serious issue, especially since in both cases they had the final say on the design. Even moreso in the case of Steve, actually -- without you and Jack, he wound up as the de facto Product Manager for Relay, and really never had the cycles to do so effectively, so a lot of decisions had to be made by fiat when we could get his attention. That was an issue until we brought Cathy in, and that wasn't until the waning days of that project. It's working a lot better now: Chris has strong opinions, but he's more able to act as an equal member of the team, feeding into the process collectively.
The point being - in terms of management strategy you deal with a thickness of personality a whole lot differently from a thickness of actual structure or process.
This is true, but I think it really was a bit different for Dev than it was for you. We were more intentionally sheltered from the upper levels than you were, and the communications chain was just plain more *formal*. We were allowed to talk directly to management, but really never encouraged to do so -- when it happened, it was usually because Dan or I barged in and insisted on being heard, and most of the engineers weren't willing to be quite so forthright. Other than that, communications were usually highly mediated. That was quite deliberate, but in hindsight was probably a mistake...
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Granted, the strong opinions at the top were a serious issue, especially since in both cases they had the final say on the design. Even moreso in the case of Steve, actually -- without you and Jack, he wound up as the de facto Product Manager for Relay, and really never had the cycles to do so effectively, so a lot of decisions had to be made by fiat when we could get his attention. That was an issue until we brought Cathy in, and that wasn't until the waning days of that project. It's working a lot better now: Chris has strong opinions, but he's more able to act as an equal member of the team, feeding into the process collectively.
The point being - in terms of management strategy you deal with a thickness of personality a whole lot differently from a thickness of actual structure or process.
This is true, but I think it really was a bit different for Dev than it was for you. We were more intentionally sheltered from the upper levels than you were, and the communications chain was just plain more *formal*. We were allowed to talk directly to management, but really never encouraged to do so -- when it happened, it was usually because Dan or I barged in and insisted on being heard, and most of the engineers weren't willing to be quite so forthright. Other than that, communications were usually highly mediated. That was quite deliberate, but in hindsight was probably a mistake...