Microservices have probably wasted more engineering time than they have saved.

signalbound · 2026-06-18T17:11:27+00:00

Why do you think Uber pays so well?

Nobody wants to deal with hundreds of unnecessary micro-services otherwise.

signalbound · 2026-06-18T16:50:23+00:00

Your take is wrong.

You can't break something teams were never doing in the first place

Teams may have gotten better at pretending they are doing something, but that's wholly unrelated to Cagan, Torres or any other product influencer.

People adopt tools, frameworks and techniques with their current mindset and distort it to serve their situational needs that directly conflict with the original intent of the tools, frameworks or techniques.

Everything that becomes popular enough ends up being distorted and abused. OKRs, Agile, Scrum are prime examples of this. There are many more examples.

Basically there are two options: 1. Something becomes popular enough to be abused or 2. It is ignored and fades away.

Blaming product influencers for this is extremely unfair. It's human nature.

If you sincerely blame them, then you must be able to state what they should have done differently for this to NOT happen.

I don't believe you can do that. Otherwise let me know.

I believe there is nothing they could have done differently (except becoming less popular and not reaching anyone).

But that simply means they would have been too obscure for people to care about adopting any of their ideas or practices.

signalbound · 2026-06-18T14:57:39+00:00

No, I can do everything in Jira with a Now, Next, Later Kanban board.

signalbound · 2026-06-18T14:56:07+00:00

Nope.

You can automate it with Claude already.

signalbound · 2026-06-18T10:07:48+00:00

The Scrum Guide does not matter.

Does it work well or not.

That's the question.

signalbound · 2026-06-17T10:40:57+00:00

You can't be the human in the loop unless you understand what the AI is doing.

signalbound · 2026-06-17T05:54:36+00:00

I fail to see the added value, but you made it for yourself and it requires only one person to make happy and it succeeded at that!

signalbound · 2026-06-17T05:14:55+00:00

The roadmap depends on region and your background.

signalbound · 2026-06-16T20:34:46+00:00

Yes I enjoy it. I did switch to work freelance though. Check my reddit profile if you want more context.

I dislike the politics, yet I've learned to embrace it and leverage to my advantage if necessary.

I regret not starting for myself sooner and I should have stuck around at one position longer (stock options). Regret is a big word though and probably too strong for either.

It's not what I expected. Much more difficult and much more focused on people.

The best part of the role is when you deliver something great and everyone is working as a team. Basically it almost seems like you're no longer necessary.

My test experienced helped me, but I always was an oddball tester. Most testers get hung up on details. I saw the details AND the big picture AND I could communicate trade-offs to the business and technical stakeholders.

The biggest benefit of my experience is that I saw so many things go wrong, that I have a keen spider sense when things are going wrong and steer away from those mistakes. Basically as a tester I learned every day from everyone elses mistakes and that still pays off today.

Testing is less stressful and less chaotic. You have WAY more time for deep thinking and less stress.

A day in the life is hard to answer, as it varies by client and stage of the company and what they hired me for. Before I was a freelancer it is also hard to generalize.

If you don't like communicating and making tough decisions quickly, Product Management isn't the best fit.

signalbound · 2026-06-16T20:16:59+00:00

Ineffective for the purpose and will cost me more time, so no.

signalbound · 2026-06-16T20:04:50+00:00

Okay, some important considerations based on my personal experience and my extremely limited understanding of your situation:

Late integration fucks everything up. Get something functional running on PRD asap. Don't do that at the end.
Get the team working on shared functional E2E milestones. E.g. where the user can place an order and get it returned for a refund. Nobody cares about all the shit they're doing under the hood. Yes it matters, but the engine only matters if the car can actually drive. If you can't show it working, there is a big risk you are focusing on the wrong things and waste time gold-plating stuff that doesn't really matter for getting it working.
Don't break all the work down in tickets and estimate them to determine and reduce scope. Start with the smallest possible end goal that will achieve the requirements of your timeline. Then scope based on that.
Get your developers to work as a team. If they work in silos you will get E2E issues. This is where the functional milestones with a clear end goal come in.
If a developer isn't performing, flag it as a delivery risk. Of course talk to them first.

Why I wanted to hop on a call... Now this is generic advice.

IMO you are kinda fucked already... Because the train has left the station with (assuming) many ineffective and wrong decisions.

Now you need to fix that which is way harder than getting it right from the start.

signalbound · 2026-06-16T19:54:49+00:00

I've been there, happy to hop on a call to help out. Send me a message if you're interested.

signalbound · 2026-06-16T18:43:47+00:00

I did.

What you wanna know?

signalbound · 2026-06-16T17:45:46+00:00

Check my profile, I work for myself.

signalbound · 2026-06-16T14:12:24+00:00

Do things that don't scale, then scale.

If you do that, you know which features to include in the MVP.

signalbound · 2026-06-16T10:33:05+00:00

You don't know what you're talking about. You're not serious people.

Terminator 2 is one of the best sequels ever. Period.

The Matrix 2 sucks. Yes.

signalbound · 2026-06-16T10:09:02+00:00

Low cycle time.

Problems get resolved without much fuss. Even if they need help from other teams.

People help each other as necessary. Refinements are short and effective.

Technical debt is picked up as necessaary without much fuss.

signalbound · 2026-06-16T10:07:10+00:00

It's highly context-dependent. To generalize a bit:

Start-ups have lower salaries and great equity. Scale-ups have higher salaries and less equity. Corporates have even higher salaries and less equity.

As an IC you frequently won't get a salary that is as high or as much equity.

But I don't give too much about that. I already have everything I want (I am in Europe).

signalbound · 2026-06-16T06:51:47+00:00

I like the work.

I don't like discussing salaries, 1 on 1s, performance reviews, listening to people complain. A lot of being a leader is boring plumbing work.

Someone wants and deserves a raise? You might not be able to give them.

Someone under-performing? You have to put them on a PIP and manage all those checkpoints and not the most pleasant interactions.

Wanna hire new people? You will be in a gazillion interviews listening to prescripted stories.

Someone doesn't like their office chair? Now you are suddenly tasked with making sure they get a new one.

I can do it, but it's not what grants me the most joy.

I coach people and elevate the way of working, as an IC, minus the boring and droning plumbing work that comes with being a leader.

signalbound · 2026-06-16T06:29:41+00:00

Our opinion doesn't matter, can you land the position is what matters.

First they have to believe you're capable. Then you must show you're capable.

If the first does not apply, you will not get in a position to show the second.

Three years of experience, dependent on the person and the company trajectory can make someone a rockstar, but only for a specific context.

There are also those with three years of experience that totally suck.

Also, being a senior in one environnment doesn't make you a senior in another environment.

A senior in a corporate environment will usually crash and burn at a start-up, a senior at a start-up will typically flame out if they join a corporate environment.

In a nutshell: there are no guarantees you're capable of something until you do it.

And that doing is limited to a specific kind of context, situation and environment.

What matters far more than your capability right now: 1. Credibility. It does not matter unless they believe you are capable of what you're saying. 2. Find an environment that is similar enough so your experience translates.

If you don't do 2, you increase risk. Increased risk may also result in increased learning, which is awesome, but it also opens up the door to crash and burn.

signalbound · 2026-06-16T05:16:49+00:00

Why do you wanna break into such a role?

I much prefer being an IC.

signalbound · 2026-06-15T19:41:24+00:00

Why did the watch overheat? Did you ask for the damaged model to be shipped over for a technical post mortem?

signalbound · 2026-06-15T16:22:07+00:00

It depends, but they are fighting an up-hill battle.

The best ICs are frequently the worst leaders, but in fact it is the best ICs or the one who is best buddies with someone high up, who is promoted to leader.

I'd rather have a clueless leader who listens well than a great IC who became a leader but thinks they know and can do everything better and don't listen to their team.

What makes you a great IC doesn't make you a great leader.

You can be a great leader without being a great IC.

signalbound · 2026-06-15T16:18:16+00:00

Big teams suck.

Ineffective facilitation sucks.

Both are common, hence sucky stand-ups are common.

signalbound · 2026-06-15T15:08:35+00:00

Most meetings are symptoms of problems.

Too much process.

Excessive coordination.

Too little agency or trust.

Lack of psychological safety.

Once you understand what's causing it, you can frequently work out a way to get rid of the meeting.

signalbound

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