PM RANT: Launching anything in a big company is an "impossible task"...

I'm seeing so many posts where startup employees are cribbing about things like layoffs, work culture etc etc. Doesn't seem like they have perspective on everything it takes to build a startup. I've built a failed startup myself and have immense respect for founders who are grinding it out there in such difficult recessionary circumstances. And then you have so many of the engineers and PMs cribbing about basics without talking about important things like learning growth, building for the future etc. Why such myopia? I work at a big tech and envy the speed at which startups move, the big responsibility everyone gets to handle, the fast career growth. All these things are being cribbed about. They crib about founders wanting more. Their job is to ensure success, not to give lifetime jobs to entitled people. They have more headaches you can imagine. In my small startup I had a million headaches. I can only imagine how hard it must be to run larger ships. Is everyone joining a startup these days looking for a get rich quick scheme?

What are the unique problems that you faced working as a PM in a startup at various stages vs the ones in corporate?

In July 2002, Google did something crazy: They hired a 22 year old computer science student and made him the product manager for Gmail. Gmail engineers were shocked. Gmail was the most important new project at Google. Its target was 10M users. And this guy, who was just out of college, would be the PM? But they were overruled, because Google had a bigger problem: Product managers. Google couldn’t find good PMs. Co-founder Larry Page rejected all the super-experienced PMs from Microsoft, McKinsey, etc. They talked about management and strategy and business. Larry Page hated this. He wanted Google PMs to be technical. Otherwise how would they work with the engineers? That’s when a Google VP, Marissa Mayer, had an idea: If we want PMs with technical skills and don’t care about their experience, why don’t we hire computer science students from college? Thus, the Associate Product Manager (APM) program was born. Brian Rakowski, a 22-year-old CS grad from Stanford, became the first APM. He was put on the Gmail team. Brian was scared. How could he work with super experienced, super senior engineers on a super important project if they didn’t respect him? Marissa gave him the answer: Data She explained to Brian that a PM didn’t give orders to engineers. His job was to be helpful to engineers. If he had an idea, first he should do a small test on 1% of users. If it worked, he should show the test data to the engineers to work on it. Thus, data became the centre of decisions, not seniority or politics. The rest is history. Gmail was a huge success. APM program was a huge success. The first APM, Brian, was a huge success. He’s currently the Vice President of Product Management at Google! Reference : https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shreyans512_in-july-2002-google-did-something-crazy-activity-7192496184895115264-nKXF?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Do you guys agree with the list? Anymore candidates

It's getting dirtier by the day and sure some orgs are still up to their dirty tricks. The models: - Appraise and then Lay Off: Why bother putting bandaid on a stab wound? Anyways the folks are going to fight how to answer the ..why were you laid off war, and now you are adding another twist.. why were you appraised and then laid off? - Low appraisals to force quit: Undervalue them so they leave on their own. It’s a leeches way to cut costs. Kill morale 100%. Severance penny spent $0. - Trap them in PIP: Dress it up however you want - very very few escape this death sentence. - Silent treatment: No assignments, No meetings. Watch them spiral into anxiety and leave to save their sanity. - Workload overload: Drown them in work until they break. No need for layoffs list until they make it to your collapse list first. - Strategic reorg: Re-organize them out of existence. Offer a demotion or a proxy role in a random team that you know they dont want as an alternative. - Sudden policy changes: oh! I have seen so many I can't keep up with this one. New policies that make their life hell. People leave to escape your pettiness. - Mandatory relocation: Demand they move to an undesirable location. Then you treat remote employees like outsiders. Exclude them from key projects, conversations until they feel like foster care kids, second-class citizens. You know the outcome from there on. - Use the "Culture Fit" excuse: Call out how they’re not a culture fit. Vague, unchallengeable, and forces them out without severance. And don't sell me "the org has got to do what it has got to do to survive" line. I don't buy that If you have seen this being done, I understand your silence, but I don't value it. If this has been done to you or someone close to you, I am sorry. Orgs and the people failed you. We could be 1000x better than what we are operating as.

Though in all probability, what you've already heard is true.

I'm surprised to see on the comment section that people actually support this load of crap. To any newbies or freshers entering tech this year, don't follow this advice. These CEOs exploit your time to gain revenue and when the time is not good they wouldn't think twice before considering layoffs. Just do your job and go home to your life and family. This advice only applies to entrepreneurs who have huge stakes in the company. Because if the company do well they get millions in returns as dividends. As an employee, even if you work for 25 hours you only get the same salary. Don't follow any so called self procalimed entrepreneurs advocating for the hustle culture. You hustle for your life, not for your boss or your job.

I’m really curious to know what exactly the Marketing Team does cause in the previous two organisations that I worked at , The Marketing Dept was kinda meh. So I wanted to know if it’s the case everywhere or does an actual good Marketing Team exist as the ones I’ve interacted with their lead generation and marketing was trash.

Note - I am a product manager too 4 out of 5 product managers will act all high and mighty of themselves, bragging their way as if they run everything going on in the company, flaunting their business degrees and being utterly disrespectful towards their team( dev design qa name it), Recently started going to office so the attitude I am seeing is very transparent and more visible (more with the higher experience folks) It makes me wanna leave this hyper inflated role, thinking of I will end up like them scares me, and you have to do is speak out jargons in meetings day in day out and have a English accent of Shashi Tharoor. Recently my manager told that this is a role where you have to very representable or very visible and act in floor as if you are the busiest person on earth and I seriously some PMs in company doing that, they walk so fast in floor as if they will fall off or would be better to have 4 legs.

I am an engineer, what I enjoy is solving technically challenging problems. I don't really want to spend my time bothering with non-code solutions to your business problem, and I don't care how much money my code makes you. Just have a tech lead give me a challenging tech problem to solve or build for(WITH the necessary requirements) and I'll get it done. Simple. Personally I'm saddened to see how chasing impact has taken over all good tech companies, and how you basically HAVE to create value and take ownership in other ways if you want to be SDE-3 or higher. I would rather be a more technically competent, deliverer SDE (think someone who's extremely good at being an SDE-1). Climbing the SDE ladder is boring.