Keep up the excellent work.

I know your post is in the voice of your “fictional, snarky alter-ego”, but I think it hits on (intentionally?) the dynamic between many Product Managers and their Engineering teams. The tone of Mark’s comment on your post appears to illustrate that, but maybe he was just being snarky and alter-egoish, too.

I like to believe that Product Management and Engineering can have a cooperative, egalitarian relationship, like marriages on TV. But the reality is that PM and ENGR are more like real-life marriages (or life-partnerships for those of us on the coasts). Despite our high ideals, we can too easily fall back into our traditional roles.

Just like in a real relationship, there is love, such as when ENGR goes into overdrive to get an important release out the door on schedule even though it was late to start with. Sometimes the relationship seems focused on the conflict, especially around scope and usability.

But it’s always a negotiation. PM asks for more features/bugs than they need and ENGR overestimates the effort/time it takes to deliver. It’s a dysfunctional marriage, but one that works for many companies…or does it?

Ivan

SET SOAPBOX_MODE=ON

Mark writes: “Our jobs (sic) is to bring out the best in develoeprs (sic).”

Our job – collectively – is to build shareholder value by creating products that sell, and sell well, in the face of competitors who want to take food out of our children’s mouths and out of our pockets. Our job isn’t to provide a comfy milieu for exploration and experimentation. Not even Google does that.

We work to bring out the best in each other so that we can get stuff done – on time, on quality, and on spec.

I’ll agree that a good product manager plus a good development team is desirable and optimal – but at the end of the day, development must build what the market-facing agents of the company (the product manager) specify must be built. We can differ on “how” it can be built, but there is no discussion when it comes to “what”.

And on the topic of programmer as “artist”…

Writing specifications, setting schedules, tracking milestones, testing. . .these are all science. Even how a programmer documents and unit tests are structured, scientific activities. The “art” required to create a mental model of a problem and code it into being is an important aspect of programming. . .but so are stealing/borrowing code to avoid having to write new code.

Creating products that sell doesn’t happen by mistake – it happens through the consistent application of measurable, reliable processes, all of which are enhanced by thoughtful, well-researched marketing that captures the imagination of the buyer better than the competitor’s marketing, and the activities of crafty salespeople who know how to sell.

If you are personally inspired in the exercise of your job so much so that a transcendent event occurs and you manage to invent something manifestly new or elegant or blisteringly effective, that’s swell. But it better not make you late for your next deadline. That goes for all of us.

SET SOAPBOX_MODE=OFF

We are working with some of the biggest banks in the world to understand their requirements and exactly how their business works. I used to be responsible for security for over 3,500 developers and let me tell you PM girl that I know what a mess it would be if you let the masses build what they want! My point was there is a balance between old school PM’ing (the stick) and modern development (the carrot). Building software is not a science and if you can find a balance between creativity and business you have a killer blend that is better than anything. nathan Myrvold the old MSFT CTO used to say tha a good develoepr can create 10,000 more software than an average one. I think its spot on. Our jobs is to bring out the best in develoeprs. Its like the music industry. A good artist without a good manager will produce good music that may not sell, a good manager alone is just plain lonely but the combination of the two is killer.

OK time to go, I see an old school PM throwing monkey nuts at me….I guess thats a queue to write more code. Ooops thats a bannana skin …OMG thats not a nice sight ;-)