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before he even got to the first "red flag" I started to see red flag patterns. a team that small with its own PM and copywriter, detached executives (plural, an

before he even got to the first "red flag" I started to see red flag patterns. a team that small with its own PM and copywriter, detached executives (plural, and again, with an overall team/copmany size that small, etc.) disadvantages to getting older, but one advantage is accumulating a set of observed good patterns and bad patterns you can start doing pattern matching against. there's a reason some companies specifically going after 20-somethings, folks. because y'all are more likely to fall for the anti-patterns, not see the warning signs early enough until its too late.

w0rd-driven 13y ago
You bring up excellent points. I'm in a very similar situation and I think of it in these terms. Developers are doers of the work and where the payments accrue. If I don't work, we all don't get paid. I don't say that because I don't value sales, which I won't do (because I understand my weakness) but its hard to divorce this mentality when it becomes engrained. That's also not to say copywriting or design isn't valid but its severely hard to justify a PM when there's a total of 3 cats to wrangle. I imagine his attitude comes from fully understanding he's all but worthless and instead of bending over backwards to make up for the deficiency, jackass syndrome sets in. Bait and switch seems to be pretty prevalent in our field, whether it is intentional or not. I personally wouldn't name and shame immediately but at some point when the anger subsides, I owe it to the people that come after me to be perfectly honest about this point in time. Can company x grow out of the mire of this? Sure. But this will help others read red flags early before any major damage is done.
l0gicpath 13y ago
It's not very uncommon in newly funded startups despite common belief. It's like giving a kid a box of candy, they'll surely eat it all. Inexperienced founders would likely allocated resources for roles that they don't have a need for.
hackula1 13y ago
I agree with everything except that a PM can be extremely valuable on a small team. Developers are much more valuable designing and coding than in endless meetings and planning sessions. That said, IME PMs should be at the same level in the hierarchy as the devs. PMs manage projects, not people.

w0rd-driven 13y ago

You bring up excellent points. I'm in a very similar situation and I think of it in these terms. Developers are doers of the work and where the payments accrue. If I don't work, we all don't get paid. I don't say that because I don't value sales, which I won't do (because I understand my weakness) but its hard to divorce this mentality when it becomes engrained. That's also not to say copywriting or design isn't valid but its severely hard to justify a PM when there's a total of 3 cats to wrangle. I imagine his attitude comes from fully understanding he's all but worthless and instead of bending over backwards to make up for the deficiency, jackass syndrome sets in. Bait and switch seems to be pretty prevalent in our field, whether it is intentional or not. I personally wouldn't name and shame immediately but at some point when the anger subsides, I owe it to the people that come after me to be perfectly honest about this point in time. Can company x grow out of the mire of this? Sure. But this will help others read red flags early before any major damage is done.

l0gicpath 13y ago

It's not very uncommon in newly funded startups despite common belief. It's like giving a kid a box of candy, they'll surely eat it all. Inexperienced founders would likely allocated resources for roles that they don't have a need for.

hackula1 13y ago

I agree with everything except that a PM can be extremely valuable on a small team. Developers are much more valuable designing and coding than in endless meetings and planning sessions. That said, IME PMs should be at the same level in the hierarchy as the devs. PMs manage projects, not people.