Square obviously not listening to feedback

[Katish]

I'm a developer. Not on this, but lots of things at a lot of different companies. I think it might be surprising how much disagreement there is internally on how to proceed with things. In fact, it's usually a sign of a healthy work environment where people can openly disagree and discuss without fear of retribution.

The fact they they've flip-flopped a bunch of times may simply indicate that they have a lot of internal disagreement about how to proceed on various topics. And without agreement, they're unwilling to commit to a strategy for fear of alienating all the people on one side of the discussion. They're all people, too. And you can have decisions get stalled because you don't want to alienate critical people in the office.

You may have a designer in the office who wanted desperately to keep Kaiten, but the director laid out his vision for streamlined jobs but has stated to the designer who was overruled that they're just going get feedback before committing to a decision. I think people see the politics out here but don't see the politics in there. And why would we since it's purposefully hidden.

I think you hit it 100% that they're not committing. They may even recognize that it's causing problems, but not have agreement on the solutions. Admittedly, it's extremely frustrating for the people using their product. I know I've failed the customers of my products a bunch of times. I know our development teams have done it, collectively on more than one occasion. Sometimes it's messy. Sometimes you don't want people to see just how messy the process is.

Not all working environments are like this, I am too a developer...and if you question the flow of those above (usually Code I's and Code II's); Or you go against the customers wishes, you end up being reported (thankfully usually the higher ups take heat from this in my company).
And yes, I have seen this...There is no common ground on development, you work with your leader and they pass down to you what the higher ups want. You then execute it...that is all there is to it. So I think your opinion is a bit biased to your own working environment, or position, as not all environments are like this, I can assure you; and the end result on whatever your making (the product) definitely does play into how much say goes into it.

If you do freelancing development, perhaps you have more say...because they have to take your input, as you have to comment on what you changed (if you are a programmer of course). Although I do not have personal experience with freelancing work and only have worked directly for companies, so this is only a guess(?)