HACKER Q&A
📣 at7

What things do product managers say/do that piss you off as an engineer?


The common one is when they meddle with technical implementation. Any others?


  👤 superchroma Accepted Answer ✓
Maybe a bit biased, but:

- not involving developers in estimation because they "have a pretty good feel for how fast the team works", and then getting very upset when deadlines are never hit

- inventing fake deadlines, applying a lot of pressure to developers, loudly bemoaning the state of things as dates approach and then making light of them as they pass, saying it wasn't a real deadline but the next one totally is

- going on long rambly speeches about how employees just need to try and be more influential when working with other problematic (abusive, unqualified, etc.) employees, citing the case of one amazing engineer they knew back in the day who could win over a room with charisma and charm

- lying to partners/other sections of the organization that we're prioritizing their interests when we're not

- proclaiming they're out of ideas and asking engineers on one-on-ones about if they have any ideas about how to improve productivity

- spending man months on unscientific nonsense in response to a "urgent issue" and then walking away from it when results are inconclusive and something else demands attention, and never returning

- buying a farm, hours away from the workplace, and rarely coming to work all whilst complaining about their huge commute, and then demanding a return to the office from employees


👤 chinabot
Using the word We, when they actually mean You

👤 pivo
When they're unwilling to define a feature clearly and then are unhappy with the implementation the team comes up with and insist that it be corrected, but are still unwilling to define the feature.