What can you do when you are posed with an intersection in your IT career, where you can choose between technical specialization or management? It is not a unique position and has much to do with spanning both technology and business mindsets.
If you find that you do not believe in the implementation of technical specialist and support teams where you are. If you have a passion for the commercial aspect of the software you support. And if you believe the definition of the term “technical specialist” is more of a quick fix to move away from support roles. Then you might have the holistic mindset that is useful for business and strategy.
Well. That was perhaps not as clear as intended. Let me try this again with an illustration based on +10 years work experience in scaleups, startups, and conglomerates.
Oh, what support tier is that?
IT support team members are often expected to work their way through what is known as tiers. For instance, you will have your “first line”, followed by the “second line” and then the “third line”. The higher you climb, the more specialized and knowledgeable you are expected to be. The goal for many IT support members is get out of the grind that involves answering customer requests. Wait. What? Yes, many IT support team members find themselves caught between a rock and hard place, because of one or more of the following reasons:
- The product or service they are supporting has architectural flaws that leads to a poor user experience, that requires more support for issues that simply should not occur.
- The support team is not listened to by business in terms offeedback that could be provided back for architectural decision-making. Support members do get to fill out surveys, but whether that feedback is acted upon or not can be.. Unclear.
- There is a lack of transparency from the business when it comes to future plans for the product or service, and therefore a lack of vision for what support is expected to be needed.
- The way out for an IT support staff member when points 1 through 3 are true, often lies with becoming a senior support member, or “specialist” (the chosen beautified noun will differ depending on the level of artistry that the business decides to use in its terminology).
Who wants a way out?
So the specialist role can sometimes simply be a way out. But specialists are highly dependent on the success of the technologies they claim to be Subject Matter Experts (SME) for. It is risky given the fast movement of what’s hot, and what’s not in today’s software and hardware market.
Most engineers don’t want a “way out”. They are passionate about technology and helping products and services excel for the intended audience.
The Product Manager
So it could be expected that the same engineers expect passion from the business which products and services they are meant to support.
If you really want to change how a software product or service is seen both by customers and the company staff working on it, chances are that the product manager role is a good route forward.