Product Managers Who Never Use Their Own Products

Nothing is more dangerous than having a Product Manager who has never had to use the actual product. In consumer SaaS, you can fail fast. You ship a broken button, check the heatmaps, and fix it in the next sprint. No big deal. But in Developer Experience, failing fast is just a fast way to go out of business. Here is what happens when you have a non-tech PM (my personal experince): – they think shipping a rough sandbox is fine because "it's just an MVP." They don’t realize that to a developer, a buggy testing tool is a signal that your entire production infrastructure is a house of cards. – they think trust can be built later. Developers do not give you a second chance. If your tool fails them on day one, they will never come back. – they don't understand the developer-focused feedback. – they see every product like a social media app with a massive, general audience. They think if 1,000 people land on the page, the job is done. – they see feedback as a blocker. A PM who has never been an engineer sees a release date as the finish line. An engineer PM sees a release date as the initial start line of the race. That's why most developer-focused tools have "Built by developers for developers" in their footer. Think about it!