A regular manager is better than an amorphous product manager. If your manager tells you to do X, it's pellucidly clear that you need to do X. That's the perso

A regular manager is better than an amorphous product manager. If your manager tells you to do X, it's pellucidly clear that you need to do X. That's the person that does your evaluation, can fire you, can maybe get you a raise or a bonus, that approves your vacations. If you think it is a bad idea, you can argue that with your manager. But at the end of the day, if you aren't convincing you are probably going to do X or start looking for a new job. On rare occasion maybe you can take the risky step of going over your manager's head, but it is unlikely to end well. If a product manager tells you do X, is that an order? suggestion? request for a favor? If you don't agree that X is a good idea, what are your options? What if the product manager for product A tells you do X and the product manger for product B tells you to do Y? I understand that companies on the one hand don't want a rigid system where cross functional teams communicate with each other solely by going up across and back down, but on the other hand don't like to have e.g. a programmer managed by someone that's never programmed. But a dotted line on an org chart are the corporate equivalent of code smell -- a problem waiting to happen.