Sometimes the good stuff doesn't go unnoticed, after all

One of the more interesting things to come out of the Retrospective that the Feature Team I lead at work had last week, was a simple comment under the category of Things That We Did Well: Matt protects us from outside forces. While I know I do this, and I'm supposed to do this (i.e. it's part of the job), it meant a lot to me that someone on the team not only noticed it, but thought to mention it in a Retrospective.

And I've discovered it's sometimes all I can do to deflect some of the crap that comes our way, whether it be stupid requests that shouldn't ever have seen the light of day (yet somehow... did) or valid items that simply need to be prioritized before being dropped on us. I think of some of the sources for both types of items (often people at the management, or even executive, level) and wonder how most people in the Feature Lead role would ever be able to push back like I do, since chances are pretty good that they, unlike me, probably fear for their job! It's almost like the perfect person for this role is the one who has nothing to lose, whereas of course what we generally see are people who see it as a rung on the ladder to career advancement. Holy cross purposes, Batman!

Definitely food for more thought on my part...