Why does the product assistant exist?

A year, received a lot of "product assistant" news, assuming we now have money, there are expansion plans, I think, or will not recruit product assistant, after joining him what?

Do you plan to write a prototype? No, I write prototype fast, Cicada travel site/iphone version of the prototype/ipad version of the original, also took time to draw another 4 and Cicada travels irrelevant app prototype, I did not feel hard.

Research market Analysis data? No, I have to touch the material to the product design "have a feeling", always eat other people's second-hand materials will let smell failure.

Do you coordinate visual design? No, the UI is very subjective, and the fewer people you tell the designer, the better.

Coordinate technology research and development? No, the engineer sits across from me, there is something to shout a voice, why turn a hand.

Do you take part in product testing? This can help me a lot, but like the test of complex and cumbersome things, rather than hit the luck screen to the super patient and meticulous product assistant, but also to ask a professional QA back more insurance.

So, what I need is an Android product manager who trusts him with the Android ecosystem I don't know, and can act as a full agent for PM duties when I'm busy with something else--apparently the product assistant is not up to the requirement.

What this article wants to say is, why is there a "product assistant" position?

Give me an example. Over the past year, I am the Cicada Travel product manager, interactive Designer, QA, also tube a little content operation and promotion, it is obvious that the HR and administration is also me, occasionally have to deal with VC. Pinch point count, I'm a person's output may be no more than the previous tube of four or five people less than the product group. So, is not Lu Ying's product director Sterling silver every day to work on the job? If he was as able to fight as he is now, could a product department use a product manager?

Impossible.

In the past, I have had a number of major tasks:

1. Meetings, meetings with superiors, meetings across departments, meetings with the department, Non-stop meetings ...

2, to find the public sector to the resources, and related departments to discuss cooperation, to the competent superior for support and understanding ...

3, writing documents, a variety of summary reports, process documents, communication mail ...

These three parts will occupy 60% of the time and 80% of the mind, and finally only 20% of the mind to do the product, of course, is not enough, so to recruit more product managers. Add people to bring more discussions, more meetings, more documents, and more communication costs in the process of the project. And not only the external, but also in our internal production, product design style of conflict spawned a variety of quarrels, but also make the finished character blurred. More and more people, the more annoying the heart, the completion of quality is not satisfied. In short, the efficiency of the roll down, the lower efficiency, the more feel that things do not finish, so hang out a job advertisement ...

The above background can be applied to the continuous expansion of the product group by my department director, and can be applied to the product manager for the product assistant. Logically, a reliable PM can output very large energy, but most of these energies are used to "push the project Process". The original intention of setting up the Product assistant position is to use the new person to deal with some process affairs with low technical content, to serious the product manager to a little liberation. Rookie to do a year apprentice, the perception of good can also levelup, the equivalent of training the next echelon.

So it explains why I do not need product assistant, Cicada team only 7 people, not meeting, not wrangling, do not write documents, make a decision of the chain is particularly short, coupled with long-term cooperation brings a sense of tacit understanding, the process cost to the lowest. When my mind 80% put in the product itself, at the same time pm/interactive QA is not a difficult thing. Because energy is used to "create" rather than "persuade", natural writing prototype fast, arbitrary also makes the style of design unified, maintain standards, not smell mixed.

I have a point of view that product design is a craftsman's jobs. For the craftsman, there is no good work to rely on the number of people piled up, on the contrary, good works are often a very few people in a free, tacit understanding, the distribution of resources in a complete environment. The increase in the number of people is a particularly drawback thing, the cost of communication and process costs will wear away the creativity of the creator. This reason knows a lot of people, but easier. Especially when you are in an environment where there is inevitably a superior, superior superior, superior superior superior, there are parallel departments and the public sector, there are task dispatch and report assessment, there is reward and punishment system, the process cost is not to be curbed. In order to digest the process cost and set more posts, in essence, it is aggravating the process burden, further reducing the efficiency. Low efficiency and noisy environment will eventually bring the product quality down to the average of the group, rather than the maximum of the strongest in the group.

So a slightly scaled company, can make some industry average above the product, but not easy to make excellent products, innovative products, personalized products. When the unavoidable "coordination work" to do too much, it will suppress strength, speed and inspiration, but also difficult to have a good mood to Polish products. In our profession, fewer people are exerting more force than others. If they are all in the middle level, two or three engineers are likely to do better than five or six engineers, and a product manager is likely to do better than three or four product managers. When they are trapped in the system to play a game called "two people three legs," never know how fast they can run, but also do not realize the joy of the craftsmen.