What engineers want from PMs

Engineers want to be left alone to build cool stuff; many of us believe this stereotype to be true. Engineers I talk to tell me they want ownership, they want to contribute to the team or company vision, and engineers also want to see the impact of what they are working on. Many talk about purpose, while others speak about avoiding ambiguity and risks.

This post is the second part of my series What engineers want from PMs, and I will map the generic needs and wants I defined in that post to expectations from PMs. A heartfelt thanks to the one and only Anshumani Ruddra for asking me this question; I wish more PMs thought like him.

While I have written the post with engineers in mind, many of these ideas apply to everyone; I hope some founders would pick up valuable lessons from this post.

Mandatory disclaimer: My understanding of the subject is limited. This list shouldn't be considered exhaustive or scientifically researched.

Product Managers (PMs) are students of human psychology, and they are excellent at knowing what their customers want, what their business stakeholders need, and what their team wants.

Here is a quick list of what I believe engineers want:

Money
Career growth
Fun, enjoyment
Appreciation
Kick

Here is a quick list of things engineers would like to avoid:

Deadline pressure
Ambiguous requirements
Production issues
Technical debt
Disrespect

Almost everything engineers seem to 'want' from you comes from these basic needs. I will discuss how I have seen good PMs fulfill these demands in another post. My attempt here is limited to mapping engineering expectations to underlying needs.

Requirements

Come up with product ideas that are unique and impactful.

Career growth, fun, appreciation, and kick

Sell non-unique product ideas in terms of impact on business.

Career growth and kick

Ask them for their opinion - brainstorm with the team.

Career growth, fun, appreciation, and kick needs

It prevents - ambiguous requirements and technical debt.

Thorough requirements

Prevents - Ambiguous requirements, production issues, technical debt, deadline pressure

I doubt anyone can write perfect requirements every time; involving the engineering team early on in problem-solving seems like the best solution I am aware of today.

Collaboration

Write good product/feature release notes.

Appreciation and kick

Reiterate the value your teams are creating.

Appreciation and kick

Partner with your engineering leaders to create an environment of mutual respect

It prevents - Production bugs, deadline pressure, and disrespect.

Don't just always talk to their managers; build a relationship with the engineers directly.

Career growth, appreciation, and kick

Execution

Let engineers define timelines.

Prevents - Disrespect, technical debt, and deadline pressure

For timelines with external commitments - overcommunicate and reiterate

Prevents - Disrespect, technical debt, and deadline pressure

For internal timelines, focus on quality output and not on timelines.

Prevents - Deadline pressure and production issues

Address technical debt

Prevents - Technical debt, yes, Sherlock :)

Learn 'some' tech to understand estimations/issues/complexity of work

Prevents - Technical debt, deadline pressure, and disrespect

Being a PM is a creative role. Don't become a project manager who merely pushes teams to deliver on time.

Engineers - I am curious to know what else you expect from your product managers?

Product managers - What do you want from your engineering teams? What's your take on these expectations?

Thank you friends

Thanks to all the product managers and engineer friends who have helped me understand this topic better. This post has gone through multiple drafts, and many of my friends have given me some great feedback on the post. Thank you, Bhaskar Krishnan, Manish Gupta, Aditya Katare, Mahesh Sharma, Ashutosh Agrawal, Abhishek Airan, Prachi Sharma, Indrajit Rajtilak, Ninad MG, Manish Singh, Naresh Mehta, Manpreet Singh, Varuna Dhamecha, Pushpendra Sharma, Aditya Shetty, Anshul Jhanwar, Marut Singh, Ankush Dharkar, Kalpesh Balar, Prateek Sharma and Manideep Polireddi. I have used your words and phrases liberally in this post.