Having seen this play out at a smaller scale before, there is 100% an ego driven calculus at play here, because there are probably 200 different overpaid executives who supported the PSN bait and switch as a “strategic initiative” to “drive platform engagement” for “revenue expansion roadmaps” who would look like they’ve accomplished nothing at all if this was truly dead. It’s not like they can just make a good game which produces stable long term cashflow. That’s so 2012. Now we need “metrics,” and “telemetry,” and “app installs.”
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my career it’s that you will never convince anyone wearing a suit that they are wrong. The best you can hope for is to make them think they came up with an even better idea on their own.
They don’t even need to be the suit, they just need to work with the suit.
My boss is the director of our department, his boss is the VP of the department, and his boss is the CEO. My VP is pretty cool, but to get anything done, I need to convince the director in terms that make him look good to the VP, and also make the VP look good to the CEO. My boss is good at coming up with jargon, but sometimes I need to plant the seeds of that jargon to get things rolling.
If my VP or director get replaced, I’ll probably leave. I know what works on them, and I honestly don’t have the energy to learn a whole new way of buttering someone up.
Yeah, it can be very exhausting to manage your manager.
