Comment by parineum
3 days ago
> Most PMs I've ever met had zero clue what they are doing. And no it's not only N=1 sample, same anecdote is heard from many, many other people.
Most people say that because they have no idea what a PM's job is and are upset that the PM isn't doing what they want.
Highly irrelevant. Not my role as an individual contributor to hone and fine-tune their job description.
Fact on the ground is that they usually optimize the entirely wrong indicators and never ever optimize for avoiding future problems.
In my consulting and contracting stints I made it a habit to write down what crisis is looming on the horizon and making bets with my wife which one is going to arrive first. A fun little game.
Watching train wrecks in slow motion stopped being fun with time.
What PM's job is is above my pay grade. I want them to enable me and the team, not be a mouth piece of people with zero understanding of product _and_ of engineering. They are just there to ask you how is stuff going.
> Fact on the ground is that they usually optimize the entirely wrong indicators and never ever optimize for avoiding future problems.
Fact on the ground is they don't optimize for _your_ indicators and have to compromise on what problems can be addressed now or later. They only appear to be optimizing to the wrong indicators because you don't have all the information.
> have to compromise on what problems can be addressed now or later.
9/10 PM's work is literally avoiding any decisions and responsibilities whatsoever.
Concerned dev/ops/po: Dear PM, feature FOO-123 will not be merged before we start activities for Gate 5.2. FOO-123 is required for Gate 6.0 and if we start with Gate 5.2 activities without it, Gate 6.0 will be delayed by at least 5 weeks. Team FOO is projecting verification of FOO-123 being done by the end of week, which would delay Gate 5.2 by a week. Shall we delay our activities until FOO-123 is merged or start regardless?
PM: Gate 5.2 is extremely important for the project timeline and no delays are acceptable.
<- few moments later ->
PM: I was informed by Compliance that FOO-123 is mandatory, does that affect timelines for Gate 6.0?
Disgruntled employee: Either we start over Gate 5.2 activities with FOO-123 included, which would delay Gate 6.0 by at least 9 weeks, or you get team FOO to backport FOO-123.
<- few moments later ->
PM: gets promoted for successful handling of stressful situation with FOO-123, limiting project delay to 15 weeks and only overrunning projected costs of Gate 6.0 by 30%.
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I so wish I would agree with you, if my career has not been a string of them _never_ compromising on anything and only pulling the blanket to their side of the bed.
Your balanced take is nice and I wish I inhabited that reality. So far I have not. Maybe it's the region market or maybe my marketing sucked.
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