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The Problem Space

What's the future of your role in tech? Some highlights from the recent discussion

Published 6 months ago • 1 min read

What's on my mind

There's a crisis in tech roles - from product to research to design.

All of these skills are essential, but how these skills are deployed in an organization - as roles, as parts of roles, and as complimentary with other skills and roles - are all part of a growing conversation.

I jumped in with a recent post, written in a moment of reflection on what I've been hearing from coaching clients, people in my network, and seen passing by on LinkedIn:

The reaction was intriguing - I plan to summarize the comments soon. Until that, have a look!

Amy Santee had a similar post this week, too, focusing more on how we can define impact:

Imagine sitting down to write your resume as a UX designer, researcher, ops specialist, or content strategist. You're trying to summarize your key job responsibilities and outcomes, but you keep getting stuck on one particular question over and over again:

❓ What was the result of my contribution to this project? What was my impact here?

And...it's not just researchers who are having a crisis of occupation - product managers are, too. This was partly kicked off by Airbnb's reinvention of the role as detailed in "Brian Chesky’s new playbook" on Lenny's Podcast.

Clifton Gilley articulated it well in a recent post, saying in part:

We are seeing the death of the glorified project manager with a "Product Manager" title. The one who's focused internally, on deliver and requirements and metrics management....
We're not seeing the death of the strategic product manager, though...
Maybe it is time for all of us to rethink the proper role of product management in our organizations -- and to align them toward strategy and away from delivery.

Are you in research, design, or product? How do these discussions impact you and the future you see for your role?

The Problem Space

by Janelle Ward

The Problem Space is where we go to learn about our users’ problems so we can design and develop meaningful and profitable solutions to solve these problems. It’s also where we go to learn about our companies, our employees/coworkers, and ourselves, so we can create the best organizational conditions for success.

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