Ask HN: Dealing with peer who lacks technical background
I'm a PM for a technical product. Our customers are developers. At work, I have a peer that I'll call Sam (we share the same manager). Sam is great as a person, but at work, I have the impression from the kinds of questions he asks that he doesn't really have the technical background to understand the product he works on. For example, I watched him a few times trying to sell his product to a customer based on the high level buzzwords, but when the conversation starts getting technical because the customer is trying to understand how their product might help solve a particular problem, he'll say things like "let's take a step back from the solutions and let me understand the problem you're trying to solve", even if the customer at that point really does want to talk about the detail. Or, after I explain a particular customer's situation, he'll ask me "why don't they use [product X]" which is an irrelevant fit for the problem. I've had more productive conversations talking directly with Sam's engineers, and I've heard from some of them that they feel he's adding negative value due to his lack of technical depth. Now my manager is asking me to work closer with Sam on a project, and I find it difficult because I feel like he's dragging conversations backwards or derailing them due to lack of technical understanding. Moreover, Sam projects very high confidence, and doesn't look aware of his deficiencies. How would you deal with this? I'm thinking of telling my boss what I think about Sam and ask to be left alone, but part of me feels shitty about badmouthing Sam. The extra challenge is, I sort of lied: Sam is actually a woman, in an extremely male team (~80%, and both I and my manager are men). I just didn't want my post to sound like a misogynistic rant... It causes me extra concern because I want to help her succeed as much as possible, and in my past experience when I've provided constructive feedback to women, on a couple occasions they told me they found it sexist. 1 comments on Hacker News.
I'm a PM for a technical product. Our customers are developers. At work, I have a peer that I'll call Sam (we share the same manager). Sam is great as a person, but at work, I have the impression from the kinds of questions he asks that he doesn't really have the technical background to understand the product he works on. For example, I watched him a few times trying to sell his product to a customer based on the high level buzzwords, but when the conversation starts getting technical because the customer is trying to understand how their product might help solve a particular problem, he'll say things like "let's take a step back from the solutions and let me understand the problem you're trying to solve", even if the customer at that point really does want to talk about the detail. Or, after I explain a particular customer's situation, he'll ask me "why don't they use [product X]" which is an irrelevant fit for the problem. I've had more productive conversations talking directly with Sam's engineers, and I've heard from some of them that they feel he's adding negative value due to his lack of technical depth. Now my manager is asking me to work closer with Sam on a project, and I find it difficult because I feel like he's dragging conversations backwards or derailing them due to lack of technical understanding. Moreover, Sam projects very high confidence, and doesn't look aware of his deficiencies. How would you deal with this? I'm thinking of telling my boss what I think about Sam and ask to be left alone, but part of me feels shitty about badmouthing Sam. The extra challenge is, I sort of lied: Sam is actually a woman, in an extremely male team (~80%, and both I and my manager are men). I just didn't want my post to sound like a misogynistic rant... It causes me extra concern because I want to help her succeed as much as possible, and in my past experience when I've provided constructive feedback to women, on a couple occasions they told me they found it sexist.
I'm a PM for a technical product. Our customers are developers. At work, I have a peer that I'll call Sam (we share the same manager). Sam is great as a person, but at work, I have the impression from the kinds of questions he asks that he doesn't really have the technical background to understand the product he works on. For example, I watched him a few times trying to sell his product to a customer based on the high level buzzwords, but when the conversation starts getting technical because the customer is trying to understand how their product might help solve a particular problem, he'll say things like "let's take a step back from the solutions and let me understand the problem you're trying to solve", even if the customer at that point really does want to talk about the detail. Or, after I explain a particular customer's situation, he'll ask me "why don't they use [product X]" which is an irrelevant fit for the problem. I've had more productive conversations talking directly with Sam's engineers, and I've heard from some of them that they feel he's adding negative value due to his lack of technical depth. Now my manager is asking me to work closer with Sam on a project, and I find it difficult because I feel like he's dragging conversations backwards or derailing them due to lack of technical understanding. Moreover, Sam projects very high confidence, and doesn't look aware of his deficiencies. How would you deal with this? I'm thinking of telling my boss what I think about Sam and ask to be left alone, but part of me feels shitty about badmouthing Sam. The extra challenge is, I sort of lied: Sam is actually a woman, in an extremely male team (~80%, and both I and my manager are men). I just didn't want my post to sound like a misogynistic rant... It causes me extra concern because I want to help her succeed as much as possible, and in my past experience when I've provided constructive feedback to women, on a couple occasions they told me they found it sexist. 1 comments on Hacker News.
I'm a PM for a technical product. Our customers are developers. At work, I have a peer that I'll call Sam (we share the same manager). Sam is great as a person, but at work, I have the impression from the kinds of questions he asks that he doesn't really have the technical background to understand the product he works on. For example, I watched him a few times trying to sell his product to a customer based on the high level buzzwords, but when the conversation starts getting technical because the customer is trying to understand how their product might help solve a particular problem, he'll say things like "let's take a step back from the solutions and let me understand the problem you're trying to solve", even if the customer at that point really does want to talk about the detail. Or, after I explain a particular customer's situation, he'll ask me "why don't they use [product X]" which is an irrelevant fit for the problem. I've had more productive conversations talking directly with Sam's engineers, and I've heard from some of them that they feel he's adding negative value due to his lack of technical depth. Now my manager is asking me to work closer with Sam on a project, and I find it difficult because I feel like he's dragging conversations backwards or derailing them due to lack of technical understanding. Moreover, Sam projects very high confidence, and doesn't look aware of his deficiencies. How would you deal with this? I'm thinking of telling my boss what I think about Sam and ask to be left alone, but part of me feels shitty about badmouthing Sam. The extra challenge is, I sort of lied: Sam is actually a woman, in an extremely male team (~80%, and both I and my manager are men). I just didn't want my post to sound like a misogynistic rant... It causes me extra concern because I want to help her succeed as much as possible, and in my past experience when I've provided constructive feedback to women, on a couple occasions they told me they found it sexist.
Hacker News story: Ask HN: Dealing with peer who lacks technical background
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October 09, 2021
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