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Fraud aside, I think a more common thought among developers is > Did my old job only exist because the Product Owners didn't realize we didn't have product-mar
by exac 4mo ago
Fraud aside, I think a more common thought among developers is
> Did my old job only exist because the Product Owners didn't realize we didn't have product-market fit?
- raincole 4mo agoAnd there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's what a healthy economy looks like.
- shermantanktop 4mo agoAt a small company, anyone can damage the company prospects. But product people have outsized negative impact when they are wrong. They can tank the whole company in short order. Which is maybe as it should be, but it does pit agonized debates over detailed technical work in perspective.
- pdimitar 4mo agoAll true but every time I tried to help with an outsider's perspective -- and IMO us as engineers with systems thinking _can_ contribute -- I was told to shut up and stay in my lane (more politely than that but still crystal clear what's the underlying message + a clear show of we-will-not-debate-this-again). So let them do damage. I do what I am told, I have the strategic thinking but not many have made use of it. OK. It's their right. I still pocket a wage. They could have gotten more for their money but consciously chose not to. Who am I to stop them? (And not like I actually can.)
- shermantanktop 4mo agoSame. I’m lucky to have some execs who appreciate that product people have a specific point of view (or agenda) and as a result are willing to at least listen to my views, wrt defect rates, availability, etc., but also about the occasional product idea. At the end of the day, if they choose spend their magic beans on shitty features, I’m still getting paid. Then again, I’m at a larger company, not a startup.
- eudamoniac 4mo agoThat's when I mentally tally my stock options at $0 (if they weren't so already) and assess my new TC situation. If I have lost ability to influence the business in any meaningful way, then why am I being paid in company ownership units? Reminds me of when I, as a UI dev at a very small startup, became subordinate to the new designer (who was a big fan of large fonts and huge whitespace margins in our professional tool) regardless of any UX concerns. My opinion on UI/UX was highly valued as long as it completely agreed with the designer's :-) She is, after all, the professional.
- raincole 4mo agoA healthy economy permits the companies within it to fail.
- shermantanktop 4mo agoDid someone disagree with that?
- julianeon 4mo agoThat's the job: experiment until you find product-market fit... or die trying.
- fluoridation 4mo agoOne time I worked for a client who entire idea for a product was "it's going to do the same as <specific popular open source dev tool>, except in Go and with GraphQL!" They literally had zero vision beyond duplicating effort for no reason. During the first meeting I sat in, I asked them directly why someone would choose to use their version instead of the existing one, and they didn't have an answer. Something like one or two years went by before they decided to end the contract with us, and I never learned what they hoped to achieve.
- kijin 4mo agoWell, that might be part of the reason why it's your old job and not your current one. :)
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- nitwit005 4mo agoThat's just innate. Often you don't know until you try.