4 ms·

Thats an interesting take. But wouldn't product end up having the same leverage? Or is the goal to divide product and engineering work so that no one person has

• ntr-- 6y ago
  The product department (of a sizeable software company) generally lacks the technical ability to actually construct a competing product with the business knowledge they have. They understand the business' financials and interface directly with customers, but they don't understand how the product works. Any features or issues end up being proxied through these nontechnical resources. This is why you will hear devs complain loudly about the parasitic product department (or equivalent layer above them) that always just seem to be > getting in the way However, because developers often don't actually want to interface with customers and just want to build cool tech, and charming socialites are very glad to act as that interface, this usually works. As a secondary effect they (non-intentionally) obfuscate the inner workings of the company from the devs who would otherwise (as the GP points out) realise how much they are being (ab)used and turn the screws on the upper management.
• oblio 6y ago
  Product folks (generally) can't implement their ideas on their own. Devs can.