[alexquez]

I've worked at 2 startups for a combined 14 years. One as an engineer and the other as a co-founder. I hate to say it but you and the author are both right.

That's the incredibly frustrating thing about startups. Where to spend your time depends on the context.

At first, you're desperate to validate your product and understand your customers. Spending more time in the lab won't save much time because you have little overhead and changes can happen quickly. Prototypes don't always convey a product's value. Imagine looking at mockups of Dropbox before it was released. I'd be the skeptic saying "So I can only sync one folder? That's stupid!", yet I love Dropbox.

I think Intercom's opinion is based on mature, profitable, companies that build ambitious new products. The proportion of time invested in user research, design and prototyping costs a fraction of changes downstream. My current company is in its sixth year and we have millions of users. In the first six months, users could tweet feature requests and we'd release that week. Building new features today requires a 3-month lead just to be considered for the roadmap.

PM done right can be magical. I don't believe in Smurfs, fairies or 100x devs but I believe in 100x Project Managers.

[throwaway080383]

IME "100x devs" have been those that to a certain extent can do their own PM'ing (as well as people managing, have substantial technical chops in their own right, an insane work ethic...).

[jiveturkey]

100x Product Manager, yep.

100x Project Manager? I don’t see it. Not that they don’t bring value, but project managers just don’t have enough leverage in the process to be 100x.

[alexquez]

I should have mentioned that this magical 100X PM chooses the right solution to the biggest problem. I'm not referring to the PM who manages a project he or she was given. You can't manage your way to glory if you're solving a problem no one cares about.

Think Drew Houston deciding that magically syncing files on save without an explicit "Do you want to sync" step was a good idea. Magic doesn't happen often, but it exists in the world.

[ggg9990]

Yes, in a certain way, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, etc. are millionX PMs.