Prior to reading this chapter I was pretty ignorant to what a product manager’s job entailed. After reading the excerpt I learn that ignorance is essentially how I should be of what product managers do as a monolith. Unlike many jobs which involve the utilization of a product manager, such as a software developer, product managers don’t necessarily have a standard set of responsibilities or requirements. They are agile to the company or even project they’re assigned to which is why it is also important for project managers to be flexible, fast-thinking people who are solution driven. It is an ambiguous job and those who do it must understand that foremost. In reference to myself, I have always sought to find a job that is interdisciplinary and constantly changing, requiring me to navigate unknown territory towards a goal. I didn’t find it in SWE and nearly found it in consulting, so perhaps this is the perfect in-between.
The article also hints at how design thinking oversimplifies and expedites the actual design process and I completely agree. Fast iteration is great but it should not be standardized, in fact, I think that directly counters the purpose of iteration in the first place. Design Thinking tries to package creative solutions into a one-size-fits-all box, is that not what it strives to dissent from?
