Abstraction

In a previous post I’ve mentioned my position that product management should not be part of an engineering department. Some folks have said that my argument is too academic and doesn’t have relevance in the real world. Fair enough. I’ll try again:

A product manager is measured by the success of the product in the market. An engineer is measured by the extent to which the developed product aligns with the requirements developed by the product manager. A product manager reporting into engineering is set up for failure: product requirements will be developed with an eye toward helping the engineering department succeed, not success in the market.

To be fair, there is one benefit of placing product management in engineering: When the company goes out of business and everyone is saying their goodbyes in the parking lot, people will feel a little better knowing that they consistently developed a product exactly according to spec.