Roles aren't needed, but they make a difference
It’s become commonplace to see articles or discussion threads arguing about how role X is the game changer and that every company should invest in that role.
Many of the discussions seem to almost paint the role as the messiah of product development and that only THEY are equipped to solve the real problems of the organisation.
In the past, I’ve been involved in many of those discussions, sometimes even arguments to defend many of those roles, but with more experience and trying to take an objective view, my views have gone through some updates.
I recently reached a fundamental conclusion that most roles are to an extent pure fluff.
I’m going to ask you, the reader, to please bare with me through this rationalisation, because I’m not exactly arguing against these roles.
Going back to basics
Let’s say you want to build a product, whether it be digital or physical. What do you need to build that product?
Engineer - to develop the underlying structure and working parts
Designer - To make it usable, functional and delightful
The truth is that we don’t need any of the other roles that most organisations implement to create the product. In some cases, some products get by without the designer, but I would generally recommend against it.
What about business acumen? Stakeholder management? User insights? Data? etc.
Firstly, to build a product you don’t need specific roles for any of those other things. You don’t!
But even if you then need to take those tasks on, a designer or engineer can “hack” it at first. As a partnership, they can maybe get by and maybe in some cases actually thrive.
This is not a new concept and I recommend reading the ReWork book which goes into much more detail about how this can work quite successfully.
So all the other roles are pointless and we should all learn to be designers or engineers?
At no time did I say that the other roles are pointless. I did say that to an extent they are fluff, but I mean that in a positive way.
All other roles are super important and in their own right, they bring extra value to the product development process, but not one size fits all and we need to be conscious of that.
I can build a product with only those 2 roles, but then I discover that they’re terrible on the business side so maybe you hire a product manager or project manager (I know they’re not the same thing).
The truth of the matter is that what need to focus on is the skillset we need to solve the challenges and problems we face.
This will vary greatly depending on the competencies of your existing team(s). That’s why in some orgs we see a need for DesignOps, while in others ResearchOps and in others Product Ops, but potentially not all three.
That’s why we see organisations with Data Analysts, Business Analysts or Agile Coaches, while others might not feel that need.
It’s also why we see so many discrepancies in job descriptions of roles that seem to have the same title. I’m guessing it’s what also sparked the recent debate about whether the Product Manager and Product marketing managers should be a single role or two roles.
In conclusion
My thinking is that we have specific needs for each organisation and also for each team because we have many different skillsets.
If I have a designer who is simultaneously good at frontend development and user interfaces, do I really need a frontend developer? Maybe not.
If the company is well oiled and the leaders have thought about Operational issues in a timely matter and been able to scale them, potentially have a dedicated operations person is pointless.
If tech has developed a practice of code quality analysis and continuous delivery that works well, do they need QA engineers? Potentially not.
All those extra roles can and will elevate the organisation if used correctly and they should be considered, but approached incorrectly, they can also be pointless or just filler roles.
As much as people talk about team model A or org model B, I strongly feel we have to have a certain agnostic approach and stop argue about the value of roles.
They all have the potential to bring value when used correctly and in the correct place.
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