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How to be a PM that engineers dont hate: Have a solid software development background. There is a tacit understanding that nobody absolutely needs a PM, which
by incrudible 3y ago
How to be a PM that engineers dont hate:
Have a solid software development background. There is a tacit understanding that nobody absolutely needs a PM, which leads to a lack of respect for the position. The best way to even that out is to show you understand where developers come from, but if you do not have a software background, this is far harder to pull off in a credible fashion.
- noisy_boy 3y agoThe best PMs/managers I have had are the ones that were good/decent (but usually not incredibly amazing/gifted) programmers; they understood when we said it'll take time and adjusted things to balance the delivery with amount of work/effort. However, a few others didn't have the technical background but took engineers into confidence and generally trusted/supported engineers when they pushed back on specific points. They knew what they lacked and treated engineers as partners that fill that gap. For both kinds, the above actions made them earn the trust of the engineers which means that when these PMs/managers, (occasionally) said "this must go", they had the necessary support from the engineers. So I guess the common factor is that it was their standing up for the engineers and honest actions that earned the trust. To repeat the cliche, words are cheap, show me actions.
- incrudible 3y agoThe caveat for the PM here is that they can earn someones trust without earning their respect, which puts them in a far weaker position.