Sounds like you mix up management with product people. Product people are not management at least not where I worked. I see how it might be a problem if your

Sounds like you mix up management with product people. Product people are not management at least not where I worked. I see how it might be a problem if your manager is talking to the customers. Product people are or should be equal to dev, engineering. They should indicate priorities but should not in any way evaluate engineers especially if they have no technical expertise.