Here are some of my impressions from the ProductCamp Singapore Volume 7 event yesterday.
Overall I had a good time and there seemed to be quite a few smart people around. I had several stimulating conversations that made me think of new things or see old things in new light. If anything, I would’ve liked to have more time for free-form discussion and chat after the event, as there were a couple of topics and people I didn’t get to speak with much.
Here’s what I didn’t find so great and was surprised by - I didn’t hear
a single product manager remark about systems
thinking and the
feedback loops from operations back to product that such thinking
implies. I spoke to one product manager who didn’t show any sign of
recognition when I mentioned the phrase DevOps. Likewise there didn’t
seem to be any engineers in attendance (its highly possible that I just
didn’t run into them), which I hoped to meet to share stories about
helping the product succeed from the place where the code enters the CPU
registers.
This reinforces my general impression from the industry as well as
first-hand stories from inside various companies relying on technology
to succeed - agile and DevOps are seldom more than a fairy tale for
development and operations folk, and cool-sounding terms to throw around
in job descriptions and titles to folks outside of engineering.
Perhaps its a case of poor naming - the name DevOps implies that these
principles are only for Devs and Ops, but anyone who groks the DevOps
ideas even the slightest will know that that’s not true. The
introduction of The DevOps
Handbook states it right in
the introduction:
Imagine a world where product owners, Development, QA, IT Operations, and Infosec work together, not only to help each other, but also to ensure that the overall organization succeeds.
So, while product managers are under pressure to launch the next revolution in product and corner a new niche in the market, most only seem to be interested in exploring the familiar ground (by consuming everything there is to know about product management and little else) and dare not to venture into new idea landscapes. I’d say fundamentally its a problem of being efficient and creative thinkers, something Edward de Bono has been writing about since the late sixties, but again not something the population in general appear to give much consideration or even be aware of. What do you mean “Are you a good thinker”? You just think right?.
Going back to the technology companies, the pack leaders are executing and iterating faster and faster, effectively extending their lead beyond reach. And the rest of us are second-rate at best, immersed in the arcane habits of silo mindsets and excerting countless hours coping with systematic inefficiencies at each step in the process. Some of these companies do succeed, but the costs are tremendous and growth inevitably slows you down, unless you learn how to become lightweight and agile. And that takes a multi-disciplinary approach throughout the organisation tree.
I’ll end with this read Dear Product Managers…, which seems to be one engineer’s plea to collaborate more closely, Let us contribute ideas.