DHH - We once more have no full-time managers at 37signals

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11 pointsrmason4 comments

Do they not have product managers?

>We once more have no full-time managers whose sole function is to organize or direct the work of others. Everyone doing management here does so on the side, next to their primary work as an individual contributor.

i.e Their Product Manager will also contribute to the project and code directly rather than handing out task.

This isn't just a tech thing. In many other industry they are filled with people as manager but has zero idea how any work are accomplished. Without all these knowledge they cant judge and manage any team properly.

On the flip side the best developers are not always (or even often) the best managers. I like technical managers but as someone currently managing and still contributing code I can tell you that they are 2 very different mindsets. Switching between them has a significant context switching penalty.

That's the price they (and many companies) are willing to pay.

They want to find people who can both code and manage others at the same time.

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