Ditch the Project Manager, Get a Mentor

Drop the clichés, forget about what a engineer and a artist are suppose to do and don’t judge based on the university title or gender.

This is the information revolution, where anybody with the will power to learn, can be anything they want. Sure the revolution hasn’t reach everybody on the planet, but is on it way. In the meantime, just remember that you can wear any hat you wish and more importantly, anybody can wear the hat the want, even yours.

So, my proposal is that in those workplaces, companies and startups where project managements: “are managing the resources of a software project”, ditch them (or if you are nice give them a chance to get a new hat).

Management of people kills creativity, instead provide mentorship: guide instead of dictating. Get people that can lead by nurturing the skills of the people around them and help them focus, instead of “try to put off that fire or cure the itch”.

Let the artist write software and the engineer design, it might not be appealing but, it is a start of something different and sometimes different is good.