Hacker Read

sydthrowaway · 2022-05-01 12:34:41

Are you sure? Engineers have no control over the isolated designers

MattGaiser | karma 17770 | avg karma 3.3 · | 2022-01-17 09:06:55

Engineers have very little say in what to build.

techiedudeblog | karma 221 | avg karma 44.2 · | 2013-08-06 21:56:49+00:00

Engineers were not encouraged to think independently.

brailsafe | karma 4964 | avg karma 1.53 · | 2018-11-27 23:53:04+00:00

Engineers aren't the ones paying for design, it's not their praise that's to be won.

humanrebar | karma 12057 | avg karma 2.44 · | 2018-02-26 17:20:18+00:00

Engineers aren't in the room when they decide who is doing the most critical work.

zip1234 | karma 2460 | avg karma 2.5 · | 2022-08-02 20:41:36

As far as I know nobody can just make changes unilaterally without another engineer's approval.

gjolund | karma 935 | avg karma 2.03 · | 2015-08-27 21:50:58+00:00

They are not "my" designers.

The design department is managed separately from the Engineering department. I have no control over their tooling, hiring practices, or deliverables.

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jschveibinz | karma 1579 | avg karma 1.36 · | 2022-09-15 10:42:19

The engineers are definitely not in charge.

jacquesm | karma 227883 | avg karma 3.76 · | 2023-11-02 21:02:43

Engineers don't set policy.

saalweachter | karma 13958 | avg karma 3.25 · | 2013-08-23 14:10:56+00:00

Yeah, re-reading the article the designer doesn't sound blameless.

I'm probably willing to let my claim stand without anecdote (deviations from design occur outside the engineer's control), but honestly it's the weaker point, so let it drop. The more important one is that engineers design within a set of constraints, and if these parameters are exceeded, it is not the fault of the engineer.

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dev1n | karma 1152 | avg karma 3.01 · | 2015-10-05 14:37:56

I'm sure these engineers weren't acting on their own here.

digitalsushi | karma 4573 | avg karma 5.69 · | 2020-12-11 14:22:06+00:00

Two engineers who are not aligned with each other's goals will easily do the work of zero people.

SSLy | karma 2051 | avg karma 1.78 · | 2020-12-10 16:39:47+00:00

No Engineer, no matter how smart, can sway a corporation directed by a political culture that has non-feature goals.

gnu8 | karma 2551 | avg karma 3.08 · | 2020-05-19 12:15:12+00:00

Evidently, only they are allowed to do engineering. The rest of us are expected to shut up and buy the products.

seattle_spring | karma 5707 | avg karma 2.52 · | 2022-05-14 23:51:16

None of this is in the control of the average engineering manager. Seriously, 0%.

causal | karma 1596 | avg karma 3.78 · | 2024-06-10 18:45:10

Designers try? It's not like engineers can always prevent bad management from interfering with good product

mixmastamyk | karma 12554 | avg karma 1.22 · | 2021-11-03 11:32:12

The whole point of the article is that the vast majority of engineering teams have some power. It's not a license to derail the company with technical OCD, but as in all things… "balance, grasshopper."

willcipriano | karma 10565 | avg karma 2.61 · | 2023-06-07 16:37:23

If the product owner directs work at a ticket level and never assigns it to anyone, it's their fault it isn't there. If the engineers have more autonomy than I've seen at a company are were able to decide what to work on, then sure blame the engineers.

alt227 | karma 1190 | avg karma 2.38 · | 2024-04-04 10:02:14

No engineers at FAANG companies get to think, they do what the board members and execs tell them to.

_bxg1 | karma 112 | avg karma 0.03 · | 2020-05-21 17:00:02+00:00

Regardless, there's this contentious relationship between decision makers and engineers because the former can't properly evaluate the work of the latter. Because of this, they either a) let bad engineers get away with stuff they shouldn't, or b) over-compensate and refuse to trust good engineers. It's a lose-lose.