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> An apt analogy for the proper relationship between product and engineering is a restaurant. > Engineers are the chefs in the back... I can't help but feel t
by falcor84 2y ago
> An apt analogy for the proper relationship between product and engineering is a restaurant.
> Engineers are the chefs in the back...
I can't help but feel that this betrays a misunderstanding of both Product work and restaurant kitchens. As I see it, while in some restaurants everyone may be called "chef", there is only one "Chef" (with a capital C) who is really in charge of the menu. While everyone benefits from being informed and their input should be respected, if everyone in the kitchen were to make independent menu decisions, it would be anarchy. Same with tech projects, there is a strong benefit to having a singular vision of "what" we are about to release - and the inverse, to avoid scope creep.
I have seen cases where a power-hungry incompetent product owner sets up "mushroom management", but I don't see how having everyone constantly making their own independent product decisions would make things better. As another comment here said, product owners should have authority of the what, while offering engineers and designers information and full flexibility on the how.
To bring it back to the author's analogy - "Too many cooks spoil the broth".
EDIT: minor copy-editing
- hexfish 2y agoPlease don't confuse anarchy with chaos.
- smolder 2y agoAnarchy in this case seems like a good choice of word to me, at least. No single leader, no single direction.
- hackable_sand 2y agoI find it strange that businesses in America shed that efficiency.
- NeoTar 2y agoPlease don’t impose your solely political definition on others; anarchy meaning disorder (i.e. chaos) is a well attested meaning of the term. > anarchy: absence of order : DISORDER https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anarchy https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anarchy > anarchy: Confusion in general; disorder. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anarchy https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anarchy > anarchy: confusion and disorder https://www.dictionary.com/browse/anarchy https://www.dictionary.com/browse/anarchy
- rightbyte 2y ago> if everyone in the kitchen were to make independent menu decisions, it would be anarchy If a committee of chefs were to make menu decisions, it would be anarchy.
- specialp 2y agoThe difference in the kitchen analogy is the Chef comes from a background in cooking food and was once a kitchen cook. Many in product are completely non technical. In this case the kitchen cooks and minor chefs will be told to cook dishes out of season, and do impractical things. I view product and engineering as a complementary resource not one directing the other what to do. Often times "what" is dictated by "how" in software development