People who get into these stupid Product vs Engineering, Product vs Design, Design vs Engineering fights are those who have never managed to build a good working relationship with their counterparts and hence engage in these stupid tribal games here.

The two Senior EMs of Transport as well as the Head of Design (my counterparts) are my closest friends in Transport. Our relationship probably will not end here in Gojek. They are one of the reasons I have stuck with the same team in Gojek for 3.5 years. This is also true for many other developers and designers I have been lucky to work with in my previous companies.

I have also had to work with people who play these zero sum games and these people are generally the worst.

Imagine if you are working in a fast growing startup and had to ship dozens of projects a semester, but all you did was worry about whose role was what/ who was more imp/ who can be made redundant, how will you build the trust to execute anything?

A lot of people who play these games generally don’t ship. Because shipping is hard. Pontificating on Twitter is easier.

I feel a new upcoming smart PM who can add a lot of value to a team might feel sidelined because their TL refuses to respect them because the Engineering leader is shitting on PMs on Twitter.

I remember meeting a senior Engineering leader once and the first discussion itself seemed like a conflict. He was acting like he knew more than me. He was asking me about my PM processes. Acting like he obviously knew more than me. I was new to the company at that time. So I listened. But over time, when it became clear to me the value I was bringing to the table vs him, I realized that I did not need to justify my value to him. Or anyone else. I was getting shit done/ shipping multiple projects, slogging my ass off chasing deadlines, while all he did was gyaan. This is not a one off incident. There are a lot of these gyaandus in the industry.

I have a microphone on Twitter. I am confident, some might say overconfident to a fault, about my capabilities and what I bring to the table, but my worry is not for me. It is about the junior Pms who have to work with people who play these zero sum tribal games.

Falling into the path dependence trap again by identifying as a PM and defending the role. So will stop having these debates on Twitter going forward. This discussion, like most discussions, loses charm after a while.

Lesson: Don’t listen to gyaandus on Twitter. If you want to know whose advice to take seriously ask people inside the company what these gyaandus worked on while at the company. What important project they last shipped. How they work with their counterparts. Everything else is bakwaas. This will save you a lot of time down the line.