I effectively agree with the "destination", so to speak, of this post, but disagree with the path taken to get there.
In general when I ship projects in the context of the org I with for, I _do_ meet the requirements of higher-ups/stakeholders, but not because that's my goal -- but because we're aligned on those requirements. Shipping to make management happy feels kind of incestuous, you should be shipping because you and management both agree on what the end goals of the project are.
This might seem like a subtle distinction, but it can create issues. If you're using your management as your metre-stick without truly understanding and believing in what they want, you'll likely over-optimize for the project's goals that they've stated, but miss the target of actually making the project successful.
This approach is fine if you're primary goal is to get paid, get promoted, please your managers, etc. But if your goal is to create great things, I think you need set your metre-stick based on the project not on the management. From the outside these approaches look very similar -- which is why I largely agree with the "destination" and a lot of the tips in this post, otherwise.
In general when I ship projects in the context of the org I with for, I _do_ meet the requirements of higher-ups/stakeholders, but not because that's my goal -- but because we're aligned on those requirements. Shipping to make management happy feels kind of incestuous, you should be shipping because you and management both agree on what the end goals of the project are.
This might seem like a subtle distinction, but it can create issues. If you're using your management as your metre-stick without truly understanding and believing in what they want, you'll likely over-optimize for the project's goals that they've stated, but miss the target of actually making the project successful.
This approach is fine if you're primary goal is to get paid, get promoted, please your managers, etc. But if your goal is to create great things, I think you need set your metre-stick based on the project not on the management. From the outside these approaches look very similar -- which is why I largely agree with the "destination" and a lot of the tips in this post, otherwise.