My very first job I built a code library that, when I trained my teammates on its use (I was angling for a team lead position) we found, on average, reduced their time per project by a range of 50-90% per project by automating out tons of boilerplate, and allowing us to leverage previously created work.
We're talking about things that used to take 1-2 weeks, being done by Tuesday, if it was assigned on a Monday morning. It was nuts.
My immediate manager, didn't understand it.
His manager sat down with me and read through the code, and was ecstatic.
He brought the CEO in (it was a small shop, that was the next level), and explained out the implications.
AND..... that was the last I ever heard of it. They bought me some pizza.
On their own they decided that if they repackaged the library itself, they could sell it as a b2b tool (which was a pretty good idea).
And they assigned devs and PMs from other teams to build it.
And those devs and PMs never took a look at my code. I'm guessing they were never told about it. They did, however, build their design the exact same way they had built everything else before my library. Which meant, it made all the same mistakes they had always made. Their final product didn't really move the needle. It did not really save anyone much time. And it did not successfully sell to other businesses.
Except by then, it was the new "company initiative". And the % of resources the company had put into its development was substantial. So when it failed completely to materialize real results, it was devastating for the company.
They ended up laying off some ~20% of the company to recover losses in the months after I quit.
So yeah: "Give me your best ideas so we can implement them with out you" doesn't work. If you could have implemented the idea, you would have had it already.
We're talking about things that used to take 1-2 weeks, being done by Tuesday, if it was assigned on a Monday morning. It was nuts.
My immediate manager, didn't understand it.
His manager sat down with me and read through the code, and was ecstatic.
He brought the CEO in (it was a small shop, that was the next level), and explained out the implications.
AND..... that was the last I ever heard of it. They bought me some pizza.
On their own they decided that if they repackaged the library itself, they could sell it as a b2b tool (which was a pretty good idea).
And they assigned devs and PMs from other teams to build it.
And those devs and PMs never took a look at my code. I'm guessing they were never told about it. They did, however, build their design the exact same way they had built everything else before my library. Which meant, it made all the same mistakes they had always made. Their final product didn't really move the needle. It did not really save anyone much time. And it did not successfully sell to other businesses.
Except by then, it was the new "company initiative". And the % of resources the company had put into its development was substantial. So when it failed completely to materialize real results, it was devastating for the company.
They ended up laying off some ~20% of the company to recover losses in the months after I quit.
So yeah: "Give me your best ideas so we can implement them with out you" doesn't work. If you could have implemented the idea, you would have had it already.