Engineering Manager

The American Society of Engineering Management describes the discipline of engineering management as:

Engineering Management is the art and science of planning, organizing, allocating resources, and directing and controlling activities which have a technological component.

Engineering Management is rapidly becoming recognized as a professional discipline. Engineering managers are distinguished from other managers by the fact that they possess both an ability to apply engineering principles and a skill in organizing and directing technical projects and people in technical jobs.

Of course, this description throws another wrench in the roles within a technology company. Where is the line between technical product management, technical project management and engineering management?

Technical Product Manager

When I go to the bookstore, I see plenty of books in the technology section on software engineering and technical project management. However, there are very (if any) books about technical product management. Why is that? Technical product manager seems to be common enough in Silicon Valley, but there seems to be a lack of printed literature on technical product management. A search online, however, turned up many blogs about technical product management and what the position means.

Personally, I believe that technical product management is very different from regular product management or at least it is a specialized subset of product management. The problem that I often see is when a technology company don't see the distinction and when product management and project management gets confused.

This lack of clarity in companies also has a negative impact on its people. When a company hires a product manager (non-technical) for what is really a technical product manager role, the person simply won't be set up for success.

What baffles me and makes me wonder is it only in the tech industry that job roles are so unclear?

Coporate parents

The finance articles about shareholders and corporate raiders wanting MS to come back and buy Yahoo reminds me of those parents who has a favorite ex-boyfriend/girlfriend for their child and just can't accept that they've broken up and don't want to be together anymore.

It's tough being a founder.

The news has come out that Microsoft is withdrawing its bid for Yahoo. This is expected to lead to a big drop in Yahoo's stock on Monday and bring about law suit against Yahoo and its board.

A lot of fingers will probably be pointed at Jerry Yang and that is unfortunate, but given how cynical the world is towards CEOs I'm not surprised. We live in a time where CEOs are viewed those who are there to make big bucks and companies are soulless entities. Jerry Yang could've approached his role in the same way. He got to be a CEO, broker a major internet deal, pocketed a lot of money and moved on, but people forget that Jerry founded Yahoo and he really wants it to succeed as a company and I believe that he defines success both for the company, its employees and its shareholders. Shareholders will sue him and Yahoo, though, but I believe he is looking out for share holders and also for the 13,000 people who make up Yahoo.

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I originally wrote the above post right after the news broke but didn't actually publish it. With the latest news of billionaire Icahn trying to set up a proxy battle against Yahoo, it felt like a good real life example of what I said about people looking to make the big bucks but have no real interest in the company or its people. Basically Mr. Icahn is trying to replace the current Yahoo board for the sole purpose of selling off Yahoo. The problem is that if that is all it focuses on then this is a board that doesn't have any reason to look out for the shareholders because it's not looking out for the shareholder's company. If a deal cannot be brokered with somebody quickly, this board has no interest is making sure that the company succeeds.

Yahoo Application Platform (YAP)

At the end of last year, I switched from Yahoo! Profiles (Profiles, 360, Mash) to a new team which I have not been able to tell anyone about other then to say that it was a "platforms team". The past 5 months that I've been with the team has been fun, fast, and very exhausting. We are aiming to do something very different then what Yahoo has done in the past and doing something new that can effect a company the size of Yahoo is not easy especially when it involves steering it away from its traditional course.



After months of work, we're finally able to let the world know the full extent of what we've up to. While we've already announced Yahoo's adoption of Open Social and being a part of the Open Social Foundation, it is only one part of what my team is handling. At the Web 2.0 Summit today, our CTO announced Yahoo's Open Strategy (YOS) which aims to open up Yahoo as a platform. At the heart of it, is the Yahoo Applications Platform (YAP) and that's the group I'm a part of (shown in the above picture as simply APP). Needless to say, it's been a pretty hard pushing 2008 tackling such an ambitious project, but it feel nice to finally be able to let my friends and family know what I work on. :-)



For those interested in what I'm directly involved with from the chart... AppBin/Gallery API, End User Services, Core App API, End-user services, Publisher Services API, END POINTS, droplets, Dropzone DB, and Open Social which all part of the "APP" of the first picture.

And for the person who posted the comment saying that YAP is just vaporware, he should know that Search Monkey has gone into private beta to a select set of developers is built on top of YAP and will have a public launch soon so we're far from being vaporware.

For the many critics of Yahoo that accuses us of not moving, I can only say that while we might not be making splashy daily marketing propaganda that they are a lot of damn serious work being put in by a lot of dedicated engineers to put some serious fire power in the hands of its users.

iPhone

This past week, I got myself an iPhone since my wife had to switch to AT&T and it was cheaper to move the same carrier then paying two separate bills. I didn't have a strong desire to get an iPhone, but if I was to get a new phone I wanted one that was new for me to play with. My initial impressions of the iPhone is pretty good although depending on your perspective then it is either an expensive mp3 player or expensive mobile phone. It's whether the combined functionalities justifies the price.

Having access to the internet anytime with a fully functioning web browser is no doubt... awesome. This was my #2 reason for liking the iPhone. This worked pretty well right out of the box and I had no problem connecting through the phone or getting it set up to access my home WIFI. The only thing missing is the ability to play songs from internet radio stations especially given that this is a combined music/video/phone device.

As a proud Dad, I naturally have the urge to show off pictures of my son, but I resisted the "carry 100 pictures in my wallet" stereotype. Well, with the iPhone I can be the modern day equivalent of it and literally carry thousands of pictures to show from the phone (don't worry, I'm not carrying that many). The image quality looks good on the iPhone screen, but since I was managing my photos in Picassa, I had to create an album for the iPhone then export that album to a directory that I tell iTunes to sync. I have to do this each time I want to add a new picture. It's a workable solution but not a great one.

Using VLC, I was able to convert my divx/xvid video to mp4 which I can copied to the iPhone and watch while I travel. The video quality and sound was excellent. I wish I could this as easily on the DS.

As an PDA device, the iPhone comes a little short and is more an phone then a Blackberry competitor at this point. Managing contacts could be easier in my opinion and the default list of apps is what you expect on a phone (calendar, clock, notepad).

As a phone, the quality is good, but the lack of a speed dial function sets it back to the stone age in that area.

As a music player, having to buy an adapter before being able to use regular headphones is plain silly.

The iPhone looks beautiful coming out of the box, but the shining silver band around the display is scratched easily even if the glass is more difficult to get scratched. It doesn't matter though because when the border gets scratched the whole aesthetics of the device is compromized I'm talking about it being scratched by lint, folks! I had the device in my pocket (nothing else there, no coins, keys, pieces of paper, etc) for 10 minutes and it still got some scratches. I had to buy an iPhone condom to protect it from further scratches and to hide it.

Overall, it's a good multi-function device but it's not a PDA with a phone. It's a phone with more advanced PDA functionality then typical phones. Or it's a mobile media device with a phone and PDA functionality. If the iTouch had a camera, I'd probably have gone with it since my wife would already have the internet covered on her phone. The iPhone is a very good first generation device and has a lot of potential to be more in the future. I hope that future won't be dominated by just Apple but that other companies will learn from the success of the iPhone as to what people are looking for and more.

UED in tech

Silicon Valley is very much about coming up with new things and creating new markets often through technology. This is a different challenge then trying to break into a existing market through an evolution of market. One of the things that the makers must demonstrate is that the new technology can work and demonstrate it's usefulness. To do that means the 1.0 release must be stable and "just works".

I often see teams trying to build the "perfect" product with the "perfect" interface as part of version 1.0. Engineering attention is taken away from the product technology and stability to focus on the UI. Everyone wants to have the best product out there, but in a new market nobody knows what "perfect" or "best" means since nobody has experience with it. It's just better to make sure that what is built is built solidly and be flexible about making user experience improvements iteratively (which is easier to do in software then hardware).

Personally, I believe that User Experience and Design (UED) plays an important in product development. As Apple has shown, a good design can help take a product to the next level. However, I also feel that too much focus on UED can sometimes hurt innovation (non-UED type innovation) of a new product type. Apple didn't invent the mp3 player. It allowed the mp3 market to develop and once the world has come to accept the need for mp3 players, Apple build a product with a design and interface that dazzled and became the leader.

So folks, if you're trying to enter an existing market, take the time to examine the competition, don't make the same mistake and improve on what is out there. If you're trying to create a new market, put your resources into making the first launch stable and useful so you can grow the market.

Why Starbucks is so expensive.

Starbucks drinks are pretty expensive and this past weekend I realized why it is and it's not that it's a brand name or that they are selling an experience as well as a cup of coffee. No, the reason is the high cost of the water and cups they use.

This weekend, I was at the airport when I need a cup of hot water to warm the baby formula. The airport had free hot water in the food court where Starbucks is also located, but I needed a cup to hold the water. I went to the Starbuck counter and asked if I could have a cup of hot water and was told no and that I had to purchase the hot water. When I asked if I could just get a cup for it and that I'll pour it myself from the hot water station, I was again told that I had to purchase the cup. How expensive is the water and cup they use? Anyway, I went to the California Pizza Kitchen next to Starbucks and asked the same question. The lady was more then happy to give me an empty cup and even guess that I might be using it to heat something so she gave me a small bowl to make it easier for me.

Calendar App

Having an easily accessible calendar is extremely helpful. Some people use widgets/gadgets/PIMs/Outlook, etc. I generally like to have a small calendar on my desktop showing the current and following month.

With Geektools, I went with the classic Unix program 'cal'. I have Geektool call 'cal' to show the current month and a second call to show the next month.

Feelings on the Macbook and OSX

I'm getting more used to using OSX/Macbook although a few things still nags at me. I'm still more used to having the application's menu within the frame of the application instead of at the top of the OS (especially noticeable when I'm using a dual monitor setup), and I wish Apple would allow the screen to tilt back more, and why are they so unwilling to provide a docking station?!?

The keyboard is nice and comfortable, but a two button mouse is still preferable. Overall the system runs well, but I don't feel it's a speed demon. For those running Windows on OSX, 4 gig is recommended. Running with 2 gig is ok, but it's like running Windows on 1 gig while also slowing down OSX.

I like Quicksilver and Geektools and I love the UNIX underlying. The support for external display kick the butts of my windows notebooks (especially ones by HP). The dimensions of the 15" Macbook and the weight balance is excellent. The 17" model is too big to travel around with and the Airbook just isn't that compelling to me. Personally, I feel the 15" is the sweet spot in Apple's notebook line.