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"very engineering driven culture. 'product managers are essentially useless here.' is a quote from an engineer. engineers can modify specs mid-process, re-ord
by jkuria 16y ago
"very engineering driven culture. 'product managers are essentially useless here.' is a quote from an engineer. engineers can modify specs mid-process, re-order work projects, and inject new feature ideas anytime.
during monthly cross-team meetings, the engineers are the ones who present progress reports. product marketing and product management attend these meetings, but if they are particularly outspoken, there is actually feedback to the leadership that 'product spoke too much at the last meeting.' they really want engineers to publicly own products and be the main point of contact for the things they built."
This sounds like Mark Zuckerberg living his 'revenge of the nerds' dream in his Facebook nirvana! It certainly doesn't sound like good management practice!
- maxawaytoolong 16y agoIt certainly doesn't sound like good management practice! Why not? I worked for silicon valley startups for 15 years and not once did I meet a "product manager" who did anything worthwhile.
- pzb 16y agoProduct managers are very useful when you are not your own customer. Good product managers are a proxy for your customers, providing you information on the customer wants and needs. Good product managers work with the engineers to prioritize projects; it is not a dictator position, but does help ensure that the less sexy projects get done as well as the uber-cool sexy projects.