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The three-way standoff
A three-way standoff has formed: product managers, engineers, and designers each expect the other two roles to go away. In practice, the lines have always been blurry. There are designers who work like product managers and designers who work like polish engineers. Siloed role definitions exist mostly because big companies need a ladder to put people on.
Roles at large companies
At a larger company, one person asked to design it, rally a team, align the whole company, do the PM work, and engineer it is hard to find. A great PM rallies multiple teams, sharpens the problem a team focuses on, and handles resourcing. An engineer makes sure the output is sound and fits the broader system.
How startups differ
A startup looks different. It hires the best generalists it can, and some founders are weighing two designers to one engineer, with that one engineer making sure everything is rock solid. A ratio of one designer to something like fifteen engineers has been common. People move between the roles more fluidly, and the different hats still need wearing.
Why do big companies need career ladders?
Large organizations use leveling frameworks to keep pay and promotion consistent across thousands of employees. Such frameworks define expectations by role and level, which tends to harden the boundaries between roles. The logic of splitting work into specialist roles goes back at least to Adam Smith, who described a pin factory in The Wealth of Nations in 1776. Smith observed that dividing the work among specialists multiplied output per worker.
Why do startups hire generalists?
With few staff, each person must cover several functions, and early-stage needs shift quickly. A specialist becomes worthwhile once the volume of one kind of work can fill a full-time role. Until then, a person who can design, build, and talk to customers covers more of what the company needs. Many startups add specialists only as a function grows large enough to justify one.
More from Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career
