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I'm not sure I agree with the the last 2 paragraphs. Maybe it could be abused by political types but I feel like making someone write out their idea forces them to think it through and sets up some filter for ideas. Honestly if you can't get your idea through something as simple as writing a proposal then how do you expect to it get through any other challenges that come up during implementation. Also, why aren't people following through on their great ideas? If they're actually so useful why are they sitting a graveyard of ideas?

> At this point you have to decide whether it's really worth the energy or not.

Basically I see this as a benefit




Agree, in many orgs if you don’t do design work upfront you risk getting killed when your project is successful enough to draw attention.

The written design defends against, “this is just a toy” even if you’ve thought it through for countless hours.


>Maybe it could be abused by political types but I feel like making someone write out their idea forces them to think it through and sets up some filter for ideas.

I think as your organization gets very big you need to do this to be able to have any overview, the problem is that when your organization gets very big this is also the time when political types start to use these tactics to gain more power.


Yup, there are good faith and bad faith ways to say "draft a proposal". I was continuing in kind with the "That won't work" themes of this article, speaking to the bad-faith situation where it's just a way to push the idea into a graveyard. If your manager is trustworthy, then of course drafting a proposal is an important step.




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