Hacker News Reader

It also matches with my experience fwiw. The biggest issue I saw with qualitative is that it almost always was used to reinforce an existing idea that the PM has. I've never heard a PM say they learned something surprising and are reconsidering their initial idea.

View on HN

> I've never heard a PM say they learned something surprising and are reconsidering their initial idea.

You have never worked with a good PM then. I hear unexpected things from customers pretty much every single time I talk to one.

It's possible I've not worked with a good PM, but the fact remains that I haven't seen the industry _incentivize_ the "good PM" behavior you're describing nor have there been consequences for "bad PMs", so does "good" and "bad" really mean anything?

There are lots of companies where talking to customers is a requirement for a PM to have continued employment. I’ve worked for more than a few. Seems to me that’s a pretty significant incentive.

"Talking to customers" is "good PM behavior"? Isn't that like saying "writing code" is "good developer behavior"?

Additionally, as a PM, I hear unexpected things from my engineering teams to and they very often change the course of an initiative we're running.

A PM is an Air Traffic Controller - not a dictator.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com