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This is why it is crazy to me when Product Managers (and CEOs at small companies) don't know how to code. If you don't understand what a developer is doing, you
by iterable 13y ago
This is why it is crazy to me when Product Managers (and CEOs at small companies) don't know how to code. If you don't understand what a developer is doing, you really can't know if your feature request should take 2 hours or 2 months. And there is no way in hell for you to judge their output or how hard they are working. This information asymmetry can be super damaging to a company's progress.
- thirdtruck 13y agoNot just ignorance of coding, in general, but of the specifics of the system. It's one thing to add a new feature to a brand-new project, especially in terms of how soon you get visible results. It's another thing to do it with a legacy system. You run up against all manner of edge cases within just the internal ecosystem, never mind the larger one.
- collyw 13y agoIt depends. I had an engineer boss, who didn't really code, but liked to toy with Linux and knew a fair bit of networking. He was good, and often told us to go home and sleep on a problem that was proving difficult. I currently have two programmer bosses with less experience than me. They think they are helpful with decision making, but in reality I would get on a lot better without them (I know that because one was hired above me after I started, and my productivity has gone way down).