Pushing teams and product managers to take a bit of time up-front to consider architectural decisions, ideal vs minimal feature sets, security concerns, etc. got me promoted into a manager of managers role.

What I didn't realise was that it wouldn't actually mean having more weight to throw around. Instead those sideline efforts became my entire job and that job was exhausting.

I still believe it's possible for startup product teams to move fast without sacrificing quality and sustainability, but I'm increasingly convinced that the only way to achieve that balance is to build it in from the start.

Because no one has means to validate what actually they did.

I have seen loads of ppl who cannot make heads or tails in code but went management route.

Only one went back to coding. Most of us are quite happy with our work (not sure how we look).