Threads on this topic pop up on HN every few months. To me seems pretty clear that in most companies the structure of the product team seems fundamentally broken. I feel very sad for people who do not see the value in having a PO or a PM on their team.
To use buzzywordy language, a PO is not supposed to micro manage the developers but to give them a framework and the freedom to move within it and to make sure the product is moving in a cohesive direction that makes it objectively "better", whether that is more sales or better customer satisfaction or whatever.
IMO The PM's role is to find that out and communicate the value of the product to the market and figure out how to do that.
I've worked at places where neither role existed and the developers led the show, this always resulted in actual customer needs getting ignored, massive misunderstandings on what issues were critical and which weren't, believing the customer was a high-income tech-savy 30 year old with a 15" MacBook Pro running Chrome.
If the companies customer is that, then great! But for most companies in the world that isn't the case.
To use buzzywordy language, a PO is not supposed to micro manage the developers but to give them a framework and the freedom to move within it and to make sure the product is moving in a cohesive direction that makes it objectively "better", whether that is more sales or better customer satisfaction or whatever.
IMO The PM's role is to find that out and communicate the value of the product to the market and figure out how to do that.
I've worked at places where neither role existed and the developers led the show, this always resulted in actual customer needs getting ignored, massive misunderstandings on what issues were critical and which weren't, believing the customer was a high-income tech-savy 30 year old with a 15" MacBook Pro running Chrome.
If the companies customer is that, then great! But for most companies in the world that isn't the case.