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is it weird for other old-timers to see this happen? The number of PMs has exploded, and their scope has gotten much smaller. It seems like every form in an ap
by dpeck 6y ago
is it weird for other old-timers to see this happen? The number of PMs has exploded, and their scope has gotten much smaller. It seems like every form in an app has its own PM now and every one of them is fresh out of school.
PMs used to be different. They were excellent performers from engineering/marketing/business that caught a bigger view of what was being built and had a gut feel of what needed to be built. It seems like those folks don't have a place to go any more and we continue to beat the cross-functionalness out of folks while saying we aren't.
- ryanSrich 6y agoAre you familiar with how Apple did product development in the Jobs era? I’ve read a bit about it, but didn’t work there at the time so can’t confirm. From what I’ve read, it essentially had no PMs. They drilled the culture into every aspect of the business and then demanded excellence. Projects were lead by either designers or engineers. This to me is the ideal state. One person, most likely the lead engineer, essentially acts as what a traditional PM/PO would. They understand the deep technical and business requirements of a product. I think this might be the only setup in which you can achieve real innovation. A business only needs a modern PM once they’ve crested the hill. The data roles in. The PMs absorb the data, distill it into tasks, and engineers build it. It’s more of an assembly line than building a product.
- IronRanger 6y agoThose people exist - they are called successful founders or senior executives.