Are we just professional punching bags?
I would really like to know. Given the high expectations and lowered compensation as compared to engineers. I feel like we’re often blamed when things go wrong but when things go well it’s the engineering teams success. This is from past experiences not necessarily where I am now.
I think Program Manager is worse, they get a lot of blames and none of the glory.
Oh I can def see that.
I hate program managers because the one at my company does nothing than aaa licking. Her contribution is 0. Not sure if I can generalize it though!
Coming from an engineer: I've seen that happen.
Of course the flip side is we get paid well and don’t really have to build anything...
LOL sure. I’ve had to literally design my own flows and animations because I didn’t have design support. There have been times when I’ve had to make code changes because engineering didn’t have time (simple things).
Depends on whether it is a product-led org or not. But sometimes, yes we are the punching bag. Less so if Product-led org, then we are often the stars...I miss that :-(
How do you know if a company is product led or not?
Are you setting the vision of where your product is headed or at least someone in your chain of command that has a Product title, and then you’re figuring out how to realize it, or are you receiving a prescriptive vision and high level solution from someone outside of Product? The only exception is if the leader defining the vision is a product person without the Product title, but that’s the main difference I’ve seen. The other possible avenue that is less common is a tech-driven org where a new technology is having a product wrapped around it, but that’s kind of backwards and usually not successful.
In my org, Steve Jobs type visionaries get rewarded. Standard project mgmt type PMs don’t.
Agreed I think this is true.
YES
Product management is all about giving away success and owning failure. It sucks some days but I would not change a thing.
Haven’t thought about this but you are probably right. Engineers are hard to replace but product is plentiful so easier to axe the product guy.