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I work in a place where my boss is an engineer, his boss is an engineer, and his boss is an engineer. I've found this feeling is helped a lot by your superiors

I work in a place where my boss is an engineer, his boss is an engineer, and his boss is an engineer. I've found this feeling is helped a lot by your superiors actually understanding what you are doing and why. I'm still a pawn, but I feel appreciated.

GoToRO 8y ago
One keyword I've found is developer-led.
- tootie 8y ago
  In my experience that is a really, really wrong way to run a business and a bad way to engage developers. Every business should be customer-led and developers should understand exactly why they are doing what they're doing. Otherwise teams get to wrapped up in writing good code instead of delivering a good product.
  - Analemma_ 8y ago
    For a few glorious years, I had a manager who was a senior developer but also a PM who was a customer-focused "people person", and the two of them got along great. This is the best situation, if you can manage to find it, and we were a wonderfully functional and efficient team before inevitably it drifted apart as people reshuffled. The point is, you can have both.
- ASpring 8y ago
  I disagree with this. Teams I have been on that are very engineer-driven had tendencies to create products that they thought were innovative or technically interesting rather than something customers actually wanted. I think broader realizations of this have led to the industry-wide investment in UX research in the past decade. Though I will acknowledge my own bias here in no longer being a software developer and now more of a UX researcher.
  - rthomas6 8y ago
    Yes, this is a major con! Luckily my job involves a lot of R&D for the government, so UX and customer adoption isn't as important, though it still is important. Like other commenters have said, you need a balance. A workplace where everyone does not understand what the customer wants is crazy. A workplace where (almost) everyone does not understand any technical details of how to build what the customer wants is also crazy. Basically, you need enough people with enough domain knowledge to avoid this situation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
  - GoToRO 8y ago
    Those businesses are not in business for a long time. If one does not know the first thing about software development I don't want to work with that person. Because if I do, then I will have to do two jobs for one pay and a lot of free stress.
app4soft 8y ago
> I work in a place where my boss is an engineer, his boss is an engineer, and his boss is an engineer Are You work in SpaceX?
- rthomas6 8y ago
  No. I work at an applied research institute that is technically part of a state university, but funded mostly by government contracts and private industry. My group mostly does electronic warfare work for the US military.

GoToRO 8y ago

One keyword I've found is developer-led.

tootie 8y ago
In my experience that is a really, really wrong way to run a business and a bad way to engage developers. Every business should be customer-led and developers should understand exactly why they are doing what they're doing. Otherwise teams get to wrapped up in writing good code instead of delivering a good product.
- Analemma_ 8y ago
  For a few glorious years, I had a manager who was a senior developer but also a PM who was a customer-focused "people person", and the two of them got along great. This is the best situation, if you can manage to find it, and we were a wonderfully functional and efficient team before inevitably it drifted apart as people reshuffled. The point is, you can have both.
ASpring 8y ago
I disagree with this. Teams I have been on that are very engineer-driven had tendencies to create products that they thought were innovative or technically interesting rather than something customers actually wanted. I think broader realizations of this have led to the industry-wide investment in UX research in the past decade. Though I will acknowledge my own bias here in no longer being a software developer and now more of a UX researcher.
- rthomas6 8y ago
  Yes, this is a major con! Luckily my job involves a lot of R&D for the government, so UX and customer adoption isn't as important, though it still is important. Like other commenters have said, you need a balance. A workplace where everyone does not understand what the customer wants is crazy. A workplace where (almost) everyone does not understand any technical details of how to build what the customer wants is also crazy. Basically, you need enough people with enough domain knowledge to avoid this situation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
- GoToRO 8y ago
  Those businesses are not in business for a long time. If one does not know the first thing about software development I don't want to work with that person. Because if I do, then I will have to do two jobs for one pay and a lot of free stress.

app4soft 8y ago

> I work in a place where my boss is an engineer, his boss is an engineer, and his boss is an engineer Are You work in SpaceX?

rthomas6 8y ago
No. I work at an applied research institute that is technically part of a state university, but funded mostly by government contracts and private industry. My group mostly does electronic warfare work for the US military.