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But what if I want to join a startup so I can build out the stack of my dreams while accomplishing whatever business goals are set? I’m assuming if you _join_

But what if I want to join a startup so I can build out the stack of my dreams while accomplishing whatever business goals are set? I’m assuming if you _join_ a startup, rather then creating or co-founding one, there’s already a product person on board.

rfeather 7y ago
Maybe, maybe not. And if there is, they may or may not have enough bandwidth/power to really flesh out the full product vision. Part of the attraction to startups for some, myself included, is the agency that technical people can gain with respect to what they ultimately work on in an environment where anyone with an idea might get "airtime".
stuntkite 7y ago
You are assuming a whole lot with that one. Even when I have had product people it's very rare that they are connected with the development team and a lot of times they are stacked adversely in a team under 10 people. Bridging the product to dev and back again gap is more than a full time job. More often than that situation I've found that there just isn't a product person. I would like to know where your assumptions find startups that aren't a clusterfuck because I need to check that blog or newsgroup or whatever.
marcinzm 7y ago
>But what if I want to join a startup so I can build out the stack of my dreams while accomplishing whatever business goals are set? The article would argue that the startup has a higher chance of failing then since you're focusing on what you personally want rather than what the business/customers need. Startups aren't big companies, the business goals are always "get as much of this done as possible as soon as possible" rather than "we need X by Y." You can't execute on the minimum needs of the business and expect success. >I’m assuming if you _join_ a startup, rather then creating or co-founding one, there’s already a product person on board. In a traditional company the product people (ie: those who define product and how product interacts with technology) includes engineering management (CTO, VP Eng, etc.). It's not just the people with product in their titles. In a startup, however, there isn't a deep hierarchy so that job falls onto everyone in engineering.
longnguyen 7y ago
In early stage startup, CEO usually is company's product person

rfeather 7y ago

Maybe, maybe not. And if there is, they may or may not have enough bandwidth/power to really flesh out the full product vision. Part of the attraction to startups for some, myself included, is the agency that technical people can gain with respect to what they ultimately work on in an environment where anyone with an idea might get "airtime".

stuntkite 7y ago

You are assuming a whole lot with that one. Even when I have had product people it's very rare that they are connected with the development team and a lot of times they are stacked adversely in a team under 10 people. Bridging the product to dev and back again gap is more than a full time job. More often than that situation I've found that there just isn't a product person. I would like to know where your assumptions find startups that aren't a clusterfuck because I need to check that blog or newsgroup or whatever.

marcinzm 7y ago

>But what if I want to join a startup so I can build out the stack of my dreams while accomplishing whatever business goals are set? The article would argue that the startup has a higher chance of failing then since you're focusing on what you personally want rather than what the business/customers need. Startups aren't big companies, the business goals are always "get as much of this done as possible as soon as possible" rather than "we need X by Y." You can't execute on the minimum needs of the business and expect success. >I’m assuming if you _join_ a startup, rather then creating or co-founding one, there’s already a product person on board. In a traditional company the product people (ie: those who define product and how product interacts with technology) includes engineering management (CTO, VP Eng, etc.). It's not just the people with product in their titles. In a startup, however, there isn't a deep hierarchy so that job falls onto everyone in engineering.

longnguyen 7y ago

In early stage startup, CEO usually is company's product person