[rafiki6]

I wish more fields would just start adopting the product/engineer partnership that Software companies have perfected. Engineers are very good at what they do. Product people are very good at what they do. They need each other to build things. Sure, engineers might know enough about product to get by and product people might know enough about coding to get by, but the reason it works is because each one is an expert in what they do and are equal.

Its no different in finance, healthcare, genomics etc. I'd love to work in a setting where I'm paired with an SME product manager in a domain I have no clue about and they respect my work and I respect theirs and we are partners.

This is one of the biggest factors that made software/internet companies explode. They respected people who build software. They didn't need to. A bunch of MBAs could have easily just decided that the best way to run the company was to treat the people building the product as a cost center. Many did. I think that's probably one of the reason for the lack of innovation and down fall in many old tech companies like HP/IBM.

The ones that treated SWEs properly and valued them accordingly, did very well.

[jonathanyc]

I have heard from a friend who's a doctor that in hospitals there's a very adversarial relationship between doctors and MBAs. The MBAs see the doctors as a cost center, and the doctors resent people without MDs being above them.

Your comment reminds me to be thankful that at many software companies engineering, product, and design do respect each other as equal partners. I totally agree that to do otherwise is business suicide.

[sargstuff]

to very opposing philosopies:

MD's -> patient interest comes first

MBA's -> company interest comes first