From what I hear, the PM org had gotten too powerful at Google. It had shifted over time from a role of helping get things done to controlling everything that people tried to get done. This move shifts control back to the people closest to the product, the engineers and designers doing the work, and, in my opinion, is a very good thing.
One other thing, unless I'm misunderstanding what is happening at Google, I think your title is a bit off. This isn't managers losing power to engineers, but the PM organization (which is separate from engineering at Google) losing power and control over the engineering organization. The engineering directors and managers of business units still come out pretty well, from what I understand, but the PM org is losing some of the direct control it once had.
Very much so. Don't you?
ReplyDeleteFrom what I hear, the PM org had gotten too powerful at Google. It had shifted over time from a role of helping get things done to controlling everything that people tried to get done. This move shifts control back to the people closest to the product, the engineers and designers doing the work, and, in my opinion, is a very good thing.
Do you disagree? If so, why?
One other thing, unless I'm misunderstanding what is happening at Google, I think your title is a bit off. This isn't managers losing power to engineers, but the PM organization (which is separate from engineering at Google) losing power and control over the engineering organization. The engineering directors and managers of business units still come out pretty well, from what I understand, but the PM org is losing some of the direct control it once had.
ReplyDeleteMy title is the original article's one. How can one company be in this situation ;-) ? BTW will be in Bellevue next week. Breakfast?
ReplyDeleteGoogle will soon be defeated!
ReplyDelete