Leading product in enterprise is different. Every frustrating process you encounter was once a solution to a real problem. The approval chain that slows you down prevented a $2M mistake in 2019. The documentation requirement that feels burdensome was the only way to pass an audit after a compliance failure. The meeting that seems pointless once uncovered a critical dependency.

Bureaucracy is just institutional memory written into process. Successful teams understand before they eliminate. What problem was this solving? Does that problem still exist? Is there a better way to prevent it? Context before change. Otherwise you solve for speed and recreate the original disaster.

The goal isn't zero process. It's process that protects what matters without protecting what doesn't.