Compare this with how customer requests end up in products in startups:

Step 1: Customer <-> Sales/Product (i.e., CEO). Step 2: Product <-> Direct to Engineering (i.e., CTO)

The latency between Step1 and Step2 is 10 minutes. CEO leaves the meeting takes a piss and calls the CTO.

- Simple features take a day: CTO to actual implementation latency depends on how hands on the CTO is. In good startups CTO is the coder. Most features will make its way into the product in days.

- Complex Features take a few days: This is a tug of war between CTO - CEO and indirectly the customer. CTO will push back and try to hit a balance with CEO while the CEO works with the customer to find out what is acceptable. Again latency is measured by days.

Big companies cannot do this and will stifle your growth as an engineer. Get out there and challenge yourselves.