I’ve had many conversations with people who want product managers to design solutions. They don’t always say it that way. They say, “product managers should deliver prototypes and detailed requirements.” They say, “I can’t program to these requirements,” which is true. “You need to be more detailed,” which is false.
After all, the developers can’t be expected to know the market, can they? They just need to know how to code. Really? In my experience, the best developers are ones who need crystal clarity on the problem and the market, and find an innovative solution to the problem.The problem for many teams is that development has understaffed in design skills. Development has hired programmers. And since the development team has inadequate design skills yet are expected to produce code, they require detailed specifications from product management—they expect designs.And many product managers participate in this because, as they put it, “I’m less terrible at it than my developers.”Need help selling the idea in your organization. Download one of our free ebooks. The Strategic Role of Product Management focuses on the strategic role. Living in an Agile World reexamines the role of product management in an agile environment.
