Here is the 90 Day CEO report card for Patrick and other interesting news

S

solarguy

Well-known member
Straight off the bat, here's the report:


and here is the executive summary:

1. TL/DR Patrick graded himself hard to pretty hard. He got some excellent stuff done, but not all stuff.

2. The biggest nugget he picked up in his role as transition CEO is that DCG really really needs a very full time CEO. It's not humanly possible for him to put full time hours into the CEO position with all his other commitments. And rather than limp along for another 90 days, he has decided to step down from his position as DCG CEO and go full speed ahead to get that full time CEO. He can also concentrate on his other roles, like Trust Protector. The Trust Protectors, including and especially Patrick will be beating the bushes to find a great candidate or candidates to take on that roll. Now we just have to figure out how to pay this new amazing CEO person. Patrick worked for free, but it will be hard to find a first class CEO and pay them nothing. We welcome ideas.

3. The DCG board is back up and running with 5 members, Patrick Quinn, Sam Westrich, Brian Foster, Anton Suprunchuk and Ernesto Contreras.
 
Question for Patrick

What's more, I'm not going to be able to commit full-time to DCG any time in the foreseeable future. Why delay in getting that all-important CEO role filled ASAP? The longer I’m in a limited role, the longer we put off solving that problem, and a whole host of problems flow downstream from the lack of strong leadership at DCG. After the interim CEO experiment, I'm keenly aware of what we need in a new CEO, so it was productive and valueable in that sense.
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What do we need in a new CEO for Dash Core Group, in your view ?
 
kot said:
Would you please elaborate more about the excellent stuff?
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The DCG board is back up and running. Critically important for many reasons.

If you ping him on Discord, he responds virtually every time. He did two AMAs with Joel, once just prior to taking the roll and a second one in the middle. He had hoped to do one every month, but he was pretty constrained by his hours and other commitments.

Glenn's departure was a big loss, but his duties have been reassigned and there is a plan to hire someone for those duties. We wish him the very best in his new gig and he graciously agreed to consult with us as needed to make the transition easier. DCG has been through a couple of pay cycles and the wheels didn't fall off. It didn't turn into a big emergency and we look forward to hiring somebody who is a great fit.

We have a far far more detailed view of what is needed to get Platform/Evo launched thanks to switching to Ganter. The rigorous use of this tool should allow DCG to set more realistic and achievable dates when the next software update should roll out. That's what Patrick's other company does, they deliver software projects on time and under budget. That has historically been.....let's say......problematic at DCG. It caused a lot of friction and damaged trust between DCG and the Masternode community.

At the beginning of his interim service, he set clear measurable objective meaningful goals that were the basis for producing an objective evaluation of job performance. That is now the expectation going forward for the CEO and other leadership positions.

Since he sits on the board, communications between the Trust Protectors and DCG are better. Communications between the MN community and DCG have improved substantially, not only because of Patrick (Big shout out to Sam, Strophy, Pasta and others! Many thanks!) but he certainly played a roll in that. My personal assessment is that there is more/improving engagement in the Masternode community, which is very much a good thing.

There are also other projects in the pipeline that Patrick played a role in (like the Escalator Protocol), but hey......this was just 90'ish days. Miracles take a little longer.
 
solarguy said:
The DCG board is back up and running. Critically important for many reasons.

If you ping him on Discord, he responds virtually every time. He did two AMAs with Joel, once just prior to taking the roll and a second one in the middle. He had hoped to do one every month, but he was pretty constrained by his hours and other commitments.

Glenn's departure was a big loss, but his duties have been reassigned and there is a plan to hire someone for those duties. We wish him the very best in his new gig and he graciously agreed to consult with us as needed to make the transition easier. DCG has been through a couple of pay cycles and the wheels didn't fall off. It didn't turn into a big emergency and we look forward to hiring somebody who is a great fit.

We have a far far more detailed view of what is needed to get Platform/Evo launched thanks to switching to Ganter. The rigorous use of this tool should allow DCG to set more realistic and achievable dates when the next software update should roll out. That's what Patrick's other company does, they deliver software projects on time and under budget. That has historically been.....let's say......problematic at DCG. It caused a lot of friction and damaged trust between DCG and the Masternode community.

At the beginning of his interim service, he set clear measurable objective meaningful goals that were the basis for producing an objective evaluation of job performance. That is now the expectation going forward for the CEO and other leadership positions.

Since he sits on the board, communications between the Trust Protectors and DCG are better. Communications between the MN community and DCG have improved substantially, not only because of Patrick (Big shout out to Sam, Strophy, Pasta and others! Many thanks!) but he certainly played a roll in that. My personal assessment is that there is more/improving engagement in the Masternode community, which is very much a good thing.

There are also other projects in the pipeline that Patrick played a role in (like the Escalator Protocol), but hey......this was just 90'ish days. Miracles take a little longer.
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Thanks @solarguy for sharing this.

I find it a little strange response. Probably I have quite different definition of "excellent stuff".
What I read is:
- He responds on Discord. That is cool, even if not everyone is on Discord, it is good to know there is a place to contact him.
- He declared to do AMA every month, but he didn't. What is excellent about it?
- He lost his CFO, did not manage to find a replacement but it "didn't turn into a big emergency". It is far from excellence imho - it is a crisis management, which indicates internal crisis in the company.
- Implementation of a new tool for project management (Gantter). The tool "should allow DCG to set more realistic and achievable dates when the next software update should roll out". Well... it didn't so far. What is actually so excellent about it?
- I know nothing about the setting clear measurable objective meaningful goals that were the basis for producing an objective evaluation of job performance. So no comment here.
- Since he sits on the board, communications between the Trust Protectors and DCG are better. Yeah - he is a Trust Protector so communication should be flawless. But actually I do not see any outcomes of this communication.

So I consider the "excellent stuff" not so excellent + none of the goals, set by himself, is completed. That is concerning.
 
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Patrick did more good in 90 days than Ryan did in his last year. My (very limited) understanding is that Ryan had legitimate personal reasons why he could not be present and engaged as much as he wanted. In recognition of this, he was in the process of stepping down. That was communicated in about the worst possible way and very very late in the game. Enormous amounts of chaos and drama could have been avoided by announcing and discussing that months earlier, but it wasn't.

How often did Ryan respond if pinged....anywhere?
What were Ryan's stated goals for how often to do an AMA?
What did Ryan do to avoid a crisis in CEO transition? Why didn't he announce that he was in the process of stepping down when he had every opportunity to do so on the AMA with Joel?

Why was timely release of software such a problem for actual years? At some point, Ryan declared that DCG would never again announce an expected date of release for Platform/Evo or any other major updates....ever. So quit asking. The MN community found this unsatisfying in the extreme.
What was Ryan's vision for Platform/Evo? How was that communicated to the MN and the larger Dash community?

Ryan was adamant about _not_ having outside supervision and objective evaluation from DashWatch. How did that turn out?
What were Ryan's clear and publicly stated objective goals that would facilitate objective evaluation and grading on the part of the MN community?
etc etc etc

This is not a "Poop on Ryan" thread, he did a lot for Dash. I have great respect for Ryan and his accomplishments. I defended him for literally years in the face of setback after setback for the release of Evolution. But Patrick's ambitious 90 day goals make a lot of sense when we get the context of what he walked into. To be sure, it was a crisis and it desperately needed managing.

"Since he sits on the board, communications between the Trust Protectors and DCG are better. Yeah - he is a Trust Protector so communication should be flawless. But actually I do not see any outcomes of this communication."

Whether you see it or not, the improved communication has been a huge improvement. How long did the MN community ask for more and better methods and channels of communication? Yes, it seems obvious that having a Trust Protector on the DCG board should facilitate communication (and you're not wrong, it worked like a charm). Why was this not done earlier, like years ago? But it did actually happen under Patrick's watch.

It is 8,000 times better to set ambitious objective goals (very publicly) and make meaningful progress on those goals (even if the goals were not 100% achieved), than to just not set or discuss goals with the MN community.
 
Yes, Ryan did not perform well last year. But why actually are you writing about Ryan @solarguy?
Ryan has nothing to do with with this thread and Patrick’s goals and results.

solarguy said:
But it did actually happen under Patrick's watch.
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It didn’t. He joined board meetings much earlier (on my and Ryan’s request), when he was a member of the previous TP board.
From where do you take your information?

solarguy said:
To be sure, it was a crisis and it desperately needed managing.
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Oh yes, it was. Do to not forget that previous TP board played an enormous role in crisis creation and development.

solarguy said:
It is 8,000 times better to set ambitious objective goals (very publicly) and make meaningful progress on those goals (even if the goals were not 100% achieved), than to just not set or discuss goals with the MN community.
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What is the logic behind setting goals for myself, not meeting them and stating it is great because they were ambitious goals?
This way you could set any goal, fail every time and say it is fine to fail because the goal was ambitious.
 
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Because the context matters.

Gotta Dash. Fuller response tonight maybe if I make it to the hotel on time.
 
No reason to argue more on the topic - it would be PR only.
Not meeting objectives is not meeting objectives. And it doesn’t matter who didn’t meet them - the company still has a problem with lack of leadership and unreliable delivery.
 
"It is far from excellence imho - it is a crisis management, which indicates internal crisis in the company."

This is why I brought up the recent history with regards to the previous administration. You seem to be criticizing Patrick for being in crisis management mode......during a crisis. You either forgot that Patrick took charge during a crisis, or didn't feel that it was a salient fact. I thought it was a critical fact so I reminded you of the context that Patrick walked into.

It is entirely possible to do excellent things during a crisis, and usually the best possible time to get important things done.

" What is the logic behind setting goals for myself, not meeting them and stating it is great because they were ambitious goals? "

What is the logic of setting a really low goal which is easy to achieve, but accomplishes nothing? Or not setting goals at all, so then you can never be accused of not meeting your goals??

" Oh yes, it was. Do to not forget that previous TP board played an enormous role in crisis creation and development. "

An interesting discussion for another day perhaps, but how is it relevant for evaluating Patrick's performance as interim CEO?

Agreed, feel free to stop arguing at any time.
 
solarguy said:
" Oh yes, it was. Do to not forget that previous TP board played an enormous role in crisis creation and development. "

An interesting discussion for another day perhaps, but how is it relevant for evaluating Patrick's performance as interim CEO?
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This is how I see it:
1. Be the Trust Protector
2. Actively engage in actions that devastate company management (the company that you should protect as a TP)
3. Propose yourself for CEO after management resignations
4. Define your own goals
5. Fail to accomplish the goals (even the simplest one like definition of “What is Dash?”)
6. Grade yourself “hard but with some excellent stuff”
7. Blame former CEO for failure (or use a middleman to do it)

And don’t think I just want to argue. I want to finally have an effective development group behind Dash. I am here not to blame on Patrick - I truly hoped he would make a positive change. I am still emotionally close to Dash and heavily invested in Dash, so I want it to perform as best as possible.
Ryan failed as CEO, Patrick failed as CEO - both for their own reasons - there is no point in arguing who failed more or less. It won’t change anything. And changes are desperately needed in DCG.
 
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