PM is the 'centre of the product' : all the responsibility, but none of the direct power.
It's an important job and when done well makes a huge difference.
PM's have to have incredibly good 'EI' as they like to call it, it's a skill that is basically unrecognized by 1-dimensional engineers who are (sometimes) apparently so brilliant they cannot even have the self awareness to recognize their toxically inefficient communication abilities, as exemplified over and over in the article.
(Edit: FYI this is a far too common theme in tech, wherein you find people that are legitimately great thinkers, and are recognized as such, but have incredibly poor communications skills and I feel that that the confidence derived from their legitimate brilliance, combined with a hint of power, makes them even more unwilling to grasp the fact.)
I wonder what Google would have been with great organizational leadership?
I guess we can be thankful that their style worked well enough to make Google good at what it is, and that I guess we're all a series of 'peaks and valleys' in terms of skills, but I'll never understand how bizarrely bad some folks are at not being able to grasp organizational, social, systems, leadership, abstract problems that don't map well to engineering style problems. Edit: Though it's a different domain of skills, and often harder to recognize material talent, great marketing teams are worth as least as much as great engineering teams in most situations.
Does interpreting the descriptions '1-dimensional engineers' or 'it's common in tech' to imply 'an entire job family' suggest low or high reading comprehension?
This thread is littered with examples lack of understanding of PM's (and other) roles, to the point wherein it's almost bigotry.
It's understandable that many people don't know what 'marketing' or 'finance' is, but to project their ignorance, and couple it with with moralizing suggests exactly the kind of insufferable arrogance I'm pointing out.
From this thread:
"The value creators (engineering/programming/creative/design/product) people have been pushed aside for the value extractors (finance/managers/marketing/oversight) and now the extractors are creating the product. It is a completely backwards setup that is causing products to suffer."
(This one is wrong well past the point of being offensive)
"After certain critical mass of PMs were achieved, things went only downhill. I"
" I really haven't seen a tech company with a PM role which provided real value."
I started out as an Engineer and often felt this way as well, but having now played a variety of roles, I'm basically embarrassed at my own organizational illiteracy.
It's common in tech and it's embarrassing for the 'job family'.
It's an important job and when done well makes a huge difference.
PM's have to have incredibly good 'EI' as they like to call it, it's a skill that is basically unrecognized by 1-dimensional engineers who are (sometimes) apparently so brilliant they cannot even have the self awareness to recognize their toxically inefficient communication abilities, as exemplified over and over in the article.
(Edit: FYI this is a far too common theme in tech, wherein you find people that are legitimately great thinkers, and are recognized as such, but have incredibly poor communications skills and I feel that that the confidence derived from their legitimate brilliance, combined with a hint of power, makes them even more unwilling to grasp the fact.)
I wonder what Google would have been with great organizational leadership?
I guess we can be thankful that their style worked well enough to make Google good at what it is, and that I guess we're all a series of 'peaks and valleys' in terms of skills, but I'll never understand how bizarrely bad some folks are at not being able to grasp organizational, social, systems, leadership, abstract problems that don't map well to engineering style problems. Edit: Though it's a different domain of skills, and often harder to recognize material talent, great marketing teams are worth as least as much as great engineering teams in most situations.