Learn how to get manager approval for engineering side projects at work. A proven framework for getting buy-in for technical improvements that benefit your team and advance your career. I knew our translation integration process was broken. Everyone on the team knew it. We spent 800 hours per game manually configuring translations, and it delayed our releases by two weeks every single time. I had an idea to fix it. A tool that could automate most of the work. I pitched it to my manager. He said no. "Focus on your game. We need you to finish early." The logic made no sense to me. Other disciplines weren't going to finish early anyway. And even if we did, there would just be another game waiting. Why not fix this problem for everyone, forever? So I did two things. I worked on the tool anyway without telling anyone. And I kept asking. My manager. Their manager. Their manager's manager. It took almost a year before leadership finally cared enough about the translati...