I think great PMs are invaluable. Unfortunately, I find the vast majority of PMs are nearly a net negative on productivity.
My biggest issue is that I believe PMs must be technical, but many aren't. So what I often see happen is PMs come up with designs and requirements that have 0 consideration for how much they will cost to implement. Then there is a painful back and forth with engineering where we say "OK, this is just flat out impossible" or "there is a way we could do this that is 10 times easier". It's like trying to design a car without knowing which car parts and technologies are available.
This has been my experience as well. Yet finding technical PMs is difficult, I've only ever seen two in my nearly 20 years. For SAAS non-technical PMs are the worst since so much of the offerings are tech.
Yep. and worse, it's like designing a car without knowing the car's economics.
Like building a product for the product's sake.
In SW/HW, a PM that doesn't also build the unit economics is a wrong management choice and a waste of resources.
My biggest issue is that I believe PMs must be technical, but many aren't. So what I often see happen is PMs come up with designs and requirements that have 0 consideration for how much they will cost to implement. Then there is a painful back and forth with engineering where we say "OK, this is just flat out impossible" or "there is a way we could do this that is 10 times easier". It's like trying to design a car without knowing which car parts and technologies are available.