SpaceX dev teams don’t have PMs
How is it in practice?? PMs are everywhere in the industry… but not spacex Does it work ? #spacex
What does a PM do? Is there an analogue in defense world
think about the person who likes taking credit for others work, send emails to ask updates, does not understand technical details so you need to dumb it down for them
😂 sounds useless. Do they also schedule lots of meetings
No PMs means no PMS people!
PM here, SpaceX doesn’t need PMs anymore than you would need a PM for product that reliably cures cancer. Products that have low market risk but high execution risk don’t need PMs. If you can make a rocket thet reliably gets a specific payload to space at a dramatically lower cost the market risk is low. Similar story for a working cure for cancer. Market risk is low, execution risk is high. Product Managers make sense when there is ambiguity about the specific problem to be solved, what the priority order and magnitude of problems/pains of the user are unclear, what segments have the biggest gaps between user needs and available solutions are unknown, etc. Most products built in tech these days do not involve revolutionary breakthroughs in technical capabilities. Given enough resources, any competent team could likely deliver a CRUD or mobile app or piece of technical infrastructure. Writing beautiful code doesn’t create business value. Solving the most critical unmet needs, for underserved market segments backed by viable business models that solve business problems or delight customers is the reason Product Managers are supposed to be hired. Unfortunately, in big tech PMs often focus on activities that add no value to customers/users but are necessary evils required to survive in large organizations. Things like stakeholder management, managing optics, internal cheerleading, communicating updates to leadership, tracking eng progress, updating Jira, etc.
"Things like stakeholder management, managing optics, internal cheerleading, communicating updates to leadership, tracking eng progress, updating Jira, etc." At least for these necessary evils, I do all these things every week as a principal IC. I don't think we lack software PM due to a lack of need, but simply that we don't want dedicated people for these tasks. I think it's similar to the argument against dedicated test engineers. We'd rather blend these responsibilities than silo them.
I feel like there is an opportunity here for AI and better tools to replace all this busy-work but we are held back because PMs in big tech are more often rewarded for their stakeholder management skills than our ability to deliver outsized product outcomes. Maybe there is a startup opportunity there.
Do we need a PM for cancer research or surgery? No because those don’t need talkers who have no technical background. Same energy.
have come from big tech, and am glad there are no PMs at SpaceX. However there are product leads in specific programs within SpaceX. They serve a similar role compared to PMs, however they are few and far between. My experience with PMs at my older companies were pretty negative too (the typical powerpoint lead, schedule manager, no basic understanding in the technicals that they manage). Product leads at SpaceX usually have a pretty good technical background and are expected to fill the gaps and perform technical IC work on the side. I also have had experience with individuals in SpaceX which try to serve the role of a product lead/PM and feign responsibility for the rest of their IC role. It’s pretty apparent they get a lot of negative perception from those that do IC work, and for good reason. SpaceX recruits in ICs from externally for engineering, and promote people leaders internally. Same thought should be applied to PMs at other companies. How are you expected to lead a team of technical ICs when you have no baseline of scope of work of your IC’s tasks without asking them, because you have never filled those shoes before?
How many ICs per one people leader you have seen? How promo to next level IC works ? Who promo from IC to people leader works? Thanks
Engineers become the PMs at SpaceX. Basically there is a lead engineer who runs the project in the exact same way a PM would. Worked there for 5yrs.
Did you like it? What did you work on.
I had a lot of fun there. Worked on Starlink. There is a lot of freedom and good place to work if you don’t like micromanagement. Only downside is dealing with Elon, his mood swings, and sometimes terrible ideas.
Probably because the market dynamics are simple. Success is mostly about engineering, and winning contracts from a very limited pool to shoot shit into space as a result.