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I'm not saying reduce the body count, I'm saying don't specialize. If you have three managers, have them do everything, don't fire two of them and give the thir

I'm not saying reduce the body count, I'm saying don't specialize. If you have three managers, have them do everything, don't fire two of them and give the third one the work of the other two. If you still disagree then I think we have different intuitions about the difficulty of wearing different hats in management positions. This is somehow analogous to the split on full-stack vs. specialized development. Interestingly, full-stack teams have been heads and shoulders above in quality in my experience.

pandler 8y ago
> Interestingly, full-stack teams have been heads and shoulders above in quality in my experience. I agree with that. The way I think about it is that in web you benefit from thinking about a system holistically. The divide between front vs back end is merely a technical detail, and an organizational structure that mirrors that divide has a strong potential to artificially create friction between two parts of what should be a whole. Beyond that, I personally feel more empowered to take on responsibility as a full-stack dev, compared to when I was previously focusing on just the backend. For me, I think it’s mostly a psychological shift: I have more confidence to focus on solutions instead of deferring responsibility and thought power to someone else because it’s not my domain. So, while full-stack may be a generalist (which for some is a pejorative) in a technical sense, I see the general technical acumen as just one aspect of a higher level, more intangible specialization: solving problems and getting shit done. That sounds a bit lofty but I think it has analog to the bigger conversation here about managing. Manager with holistic responsibility for a project > manager with isolated responsibility for a single aspect of a project.
Mtinie 8y ago
> Interestingly, full-stack teams have been heads and shoulders above in quality in my experience. The only caveat to this statement I'd make, based on my own experience, is that for the most successful full-stack teams I've known, having at least one of the team members dedicated as a front-end specialist is a major advantage. Someone who is honestly interested in the State of the Art and who is well-versed in the associated tooling and patterns. They may decide, pragmatically, to work a step or two behind the bleeding edge with their production projects, but they understand what is out there and how that knowledge can be leveraged to help their team succeed. This role acts as a force multiplier and can empower the rest of the team's full-stack developers to build accessible, usable interfaces.
wool_gather 8y ago
I don't think I disagree, but I'm confused by your clarification. You mean that all three managers should perform all roles; some sort of managerial council?

pandler 8y ago

> Interestingly, full-stack teams have been heads and shoulders above in quality in my experience. I agree with that. The way I think about it is that in web you benefit from thinking about a system holistically. The divide between front vs back end is merely a technical detail, and an organizational structure that mirrors that divide has a strong potential to artificially create friction between two parts of what should be a whole. Beyond that, I personally feel more empowered to take on responsibility as a full-stack dev, compared to when I was previously focusing on just the backend. For me, I think it’s mostly a psychological shift: I have more confidence to focus on solutions instead of deferring responsibility and thought power to someone else because it’s not my domain. So, while full-stack may be a generalist (which for some is a pejorative) in a technical sense, I see the general technical acumen as just one aspect of a higher level, more intangible specialization: solving problems and getting shit done. That sounds a bit lofty but I think it has analog to the bigger conversation here about managing. Manager with holistic responsibility for a project > manager with isolated responsibility for a single aspect of a project.

Mtinie 8y ago

> Interestingly, full-stack teams have been heads and shoulders above in quality in my experience. The only caveat to this statement I'd make, based on my own experience, is that for the most successful full-stack teams I've known, having at least one of the team members dedicated as a front-end specialist is a major advantage. Someone who is honestly interested in the State of the Art and who is well-versed in the associated tooling and patterns. They may decide, pragmatically, to work a step or two behind the bleeding edge with their production projects, but they understand what is out there and how that knowledge can be leveraged to help their team succeed. This role acts as a force multiplier and can empower the rest of the team's full-stack developers to build accessible, usable interfaces.

wool_gather 8y ago

I don't think I disagree, but I'm confused by your clarification. You mean that all three managers should perform all roles; some sort of managerial council?