61–70 of 314 posts
When I was a software engineer, I used to think I was the smartest person in the room, and derided the work of product managers, delivery managers and to some extent engineering managers. I've had experience of engineering roles up to Principal and Hands-on CTO and felt that we didn't need the non-engineering backgrounds at all. Today, I find myself in a senior TPM role for a FAANG who also has "product manager" in h…
> the ideal time to hire a PM at a startup is when the founders can no longer be involved in all the important product decisions No, that's when the founders need to hire actual managers. Their staff is already used to involvement in product decisions, right? Then there are a bunch of traits and activities of PMs listed. I would think that the time to hire a PM is when the founders can't do that list of things, if th…
An experienced product person could maybe have helped with that *scnr
I think product management entails some of the most important things a company does. But it's really hard work, and many less capable PMs gravitate away from it and more towards either "driving" (i.e. micromanaging) the engineering team or just playing politics. In an organization with separate Engineering and Product functions / org charts this is really hard to deal with. You can complain up the chain of command, but bandwidth in that direction is (for natural reasons) very limited. As an EM the end result is often that these PMs make life miserable for your best engineers, and they leave.
My current view is that the best approach is to embed product management in the form of a "mini-CEO" (i.e. PM) in each team, and if they're not technically competent pairing them with a "mini-CTO". Much less room for politics, and much more for teamwork.
As a developer, and a development manager, the best product managers I've worked with rarely got involved in the "how". Sure, they may generate epic-level tickets in your back log, but lower than that, they trust you and the project people to get things done. Problem is, the org needs to support that, and in most companies, the work that gets the most attention isn't visionary or growth focused, it's whatever is maki…
On the other side I have worked with PM/POs who have no clue and the developers are just telling them: "Oh this is super complicated you would not understand" or "This will take a long time to implement" and its a small feature. There must be a balance. There must be some basic understanding by the PM/POs. They cant be the person that barley can use a computer.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can attest to that. I had worked on a product for a couple of years and received feedback from our support team, but never seen how the product was used in real life. One time, we had a specific bug that the customers were complaining about, and no matter how they described it, we couldn't figure out what the problem was. That was until I went to one of the customer sites and saw how the users were interacting with…
Writing GUI applications, there's nothing as valuable as standing behind a user who tries to do something for the first time with my application. Just seeing the moments of hesitation, how the mouse is moved while searching in menus, etc gives me a lot of information.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
God I hate memes on medium pages.
"Medium" itself is generally a good heuristic for trash that isn't worth the time reading.
I've spent some time interacting with product managers as an engineering manager, or head of a functional area. I've also been "acting" PM for an internal product at a medium size tech company. I think product management entails some of the most important things a company does. But it's really hard work, and many less capable PMs gravitate away from it and more towards either "driving" (i.e. micromanaging) the engine…
35 years in the semi industry. I must be stupid. I really don’t see politics. I see people trying to argue for their option and get support. But I’ve never seen this politics that people complain about. I’m so lucky I guess.
Is politics just someone making a better argument that is the wrong technical decision? What is “politics”?
Or am I just not at a high enough level (senior principal)?
As a developer, and a development manager, the best product managers I've worked with rarely got involved in the "how". Sure, they may generate epic-level tickets in your back log, but lower than that, they trust you and the project people to get things done. Problem is, the org needs to support that, and in most companies, the work that gets the most attention isn't visionary or growth focused, it's whatever is maki…
> As a developer, and a development manager, the best product managers I've worked with rarely got involved in the "how". My experience is completely the opposite. PMs that don't understand the how, that is, they don't know how their product works, are the worst. Best PMs that I worked with had a technical background.
It may include knowing technical weaknesses and strengths in the energineering teams abilities and their plattforms abilities and weighing that in for planning and priorities. In reality development in product that are over the teams abilities may lead to a real mess.
I've spent some time interacting with product managers as an engineering manager, or head of a functional area. I've also been "acting" PM for an internal product at a medium size tech company. I think product management entails some of the most important things a company does. But it's really hard work, and many less capable PMs gravitate away from it and more towards either "driving" (i.e. micromanaging) the engine…
“Politics” 35 years in the semi industry. I must be stupid. I really don’t see politics. I see people trying to argue for their option and get support. But I’ve never seen this politics that people complain about. I’m so lucky I guess. Is politics just someone making a better argument that is the wrong technical decision? What is “politics”? Or am I just not at a high enough level (senior principal)?
I've spent some time interacting with product managers as an engineering manager, or head of a functional area. I've also been "acting" PM for an internal product at a medium size tech company. I think product management entails some of the most important things a company does. But it's really hard work, and many less capable PMs gravitate away from it and more towards either "driving" (i.e. micromanaging) the engine…
The most successful teams I have been in had no dedicated product role, instead, all decisions were made by the developers.
My current view is best to remove all type of non technical people or even mildly technical people from the developers' way and let them build in peace.