We reached the first milestone at work today for our project. Or end of the first iteration. I dunno, it has been called a lot of things. The point is, we've got some work done, and that's badass.
In the practical sense, I've been in the new position for about two months. I think I like it better than straight dev work, for the most part, and we're building some really interesting stuff. I'm endlessly impressed that our dev team can build the crazy shit we think up. It'll be fun to finally talk about it this fall.
It continues to be an adjustment for me, however. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to apply the things I know, learn what I don't, and above all, generate the right level of detail. "Program manager" means a lot of different things around Microsoft, but in this case we dream up and design stuff, and figure out how to get it built.
The hard part in that, as I said, is finding the appropriate detail level. The old school way of developing software involved reams of documents outlining every ridiculous thing, primarily for the purpose of locking in some kind of consensus to build the right thing. That's just about the worst way you could possibly build stuff, because it makes too many assumptions about things you can't know until you build something and put it front of actual people.
So I try to think of smaller things, in a low fidelity way, that can be built quickly. With that minimum time investment (dispensing with huge documents and Powerpoint decks no one will ever look at), you can look at what you have, and iterate over it in the way that makes the most sense. That's a far more sane way to go.
The problem with what I consider sane is that it doesn't always align with the expectations of my peers, my boss or developers, so I have to adjust. That's hard. It's not impossible, but I don't have a lot of practice doing it. In my most successful scenarios, I've had many hats, so I could shape the overall process more. Fortunately, I've got people around me that want to help.
I also have a hard time measuring my own contribution. It's more of a nebulous thing in this role. When you primarily write code, it becomes a lot more obvious if you're making meaningful contribution. That leaves me a bit uneasy, but I've made it a point to seek feedback as much as possible.
Whatever discomfort I have, I did expect it. Any new job has ramp up time. I'm certainly more comfortable than I was two months ago, but I'm not where I'd like to be. I look forward to see how things will be two months from now!
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