It seems that the appropriate design skillset was lacking in the R&D group. Also maybe it was a first attempt to make something, and they did not get through a second iteration to improve it.
Why do we expect that skilled SEs are also skilled UX designers? As everything, design requires training. The problem seemed to be such people trained in design were missing from the R&D team, which sounds like management's fault rather than the engineers' in the first place. Then, the management, while correctly identified the lack of design skills, instead of strengthening their R&D team with that missing talent, they put designers in a different group, creating a different set of issues within the company. Seems a case for an overall bad management in my eyes.
Sure, the judgment that was missing is better assigned to the “management” skillset rather than the “technical” skillset.
But everyone needs some of both - the most purely technical engineer still needs the personal judgment to hit dates that matter, show up when others need them, and avoid overinvesting in purely play activities.
In this case, better managers would help but honestly any experienced engineer would know that constant customer complaints mean that something is going to change.
The article does not criticise the fact that "something changed", it criticises what specifically changed. The point of dealing with a problem is not to point fingers and find who is guilty, it is to actually find solutions to the problem. And yeah, frankly, having customers complain about a UX is not the end of the world and nobody needs to be scolded about it. They just have to understand what the complaints are about and make a better UX, which they did. It happens all the time.
> having customers complain about a UX is not the end of the world and nobody needs to be scolded about it
Sometimes that's true. Sometimes it isn't, and the bad UX is the seed that leads to a terrible destructive management overreaction.
Should an engineer be able to tell the difference? In some companies, I think that's a reasonable expectation, but in other companies, engineers are cordoned off and told what to do.
I'm reading the same article that others are, so I don't know. But I do see a lot of engineers get surprised in a way that could be prevented by just a bit of proactive thinking.
Why do we expect that skilled SEs are also skilled UX designers? As everything, design requires training. The problem seemed to be such people trained in design were missing from the R&D team, which sounds like management's fault rather than the engineers' in the first place. Then, the management, while correctly identified the lack of design skills, instead of strengthening their R&D team with that missing talent, they put designers in a different group, creating a different set of issues within the company. Seems a case for an overall bad management in my eyes.