Chapter 19. Change your mind: your product is your team
You should change your mind about what you’re building when you become a project manager or team leader (as a boss).
Forget your product. Look at your team. Suddenly, you don’t have to worry about technical decisions or pretty interfaces. You must realize that the basics of your work have changed. My own inspiration is the mantra “team equals product”:
The product will be as good as your team is.
The behavior of your team will determine the qualities of the product.
So your product as project manager is the team. Invest in the team. This will change your efforts profoundly and redirect them toward helping the team grow.
I first read that idea in the book Software for Your Head (Addison Wesley Professional, 2002), by Jim and Michelle McCarthy. This was annoying and shocking for me.
Now I believe every little effort you make to improve your team infuses the products they create. You must be ready for that. Your behavior must change to let your people do their best.
If you’ve been assigned as project manager recently, start studying again! (Take a little advice: read, and read a lot!) You have no more technology-related problems.
I love Alistair Cockburn’s comment: “If you don’t know anything about human behavior, you know very little about software development.”