I hope I didn’t dilute the message, Barb – I agree with you that the bigger problem is in companies forcing product managers to stretch too thin. I think I am vamping on one of the coloring arguments that keeps these issue from being black and white. Chalk it up to me trying to be “nuanced.”

And Roger – you’re spot on in your article. As part of a teams trying to drive home the value of user experience expertise, I’ve seen the angst that the truly gifted designers feel when people assume that the job can be done without the skills. It’s a lot like writing – everyone can write, but not everyone can be an author.

Thanks again!
Scott

I “almost agree” with you, too. In a world where you have superheroes, they can do anything. In my 20+ years of experience in the technology arena, I have seen great teams build great stuff, regardless of methodology, regardless of roles being clearly defined. Waterfall, agile, whatever. Great teams have a special chemistry. Superheroes just get stuff done. Brilliantly. And when they solve problems people actually want to pay someone to solve, there is no stopping them. With or without formal product management. (Did I say that?)

The “specializing generalist” concept has merit, particularly for the developers. But in the role of product management where there are a whole bunch of other things to be done that are beyond the development process, it isn’t practical. If the team is 2 guys in a garage, that’s a different story. Or a 20-person start-up. With superheroes on the team.

But those teams and those people aren’t the ones we’re talking about. Superheroes don’t need special methodologies. Being pragmatic, we are looking for repeatable. We are looking for ways to help regular people. We are looking for ways to grow our businesses. My gut tells me that only 5% fit the archetypes you describe. They are born that way. The other 95% might not be brilliant, but they can be successful with focus. Someone on the team keeping the vision of what needs to be built, for whom, where we can all make money. (In a start-up, this is usually a founder, not the product manager.)

I frequently see product managers filling some of the other development roles. BUT, if they are deep into the development process of designing, testing, developing rather than in the market gaining the deep understanding of the market, they will fall back on opinions rather than facts to make decisions. I’m OK with that as long as SOMEONE’s job is market expert. Market expertise does not come from sitting in development.

Happy Friday!

“And in a healthy, productive organization, some people are flexible and play multiple roles.”

Nonetheless, the problem in most organizations is that there is little awareness of the skills necessary to play some of the roles. For example:

“Every company has one or more people that play the interaction designer role. Usually, those people have little or no expertise in interaction design. Sadly, they typically don’t even realize how unqualified they are.”