(ALL COMMENTS WELCOME)
In this article in today’s FT, a survey of multiple countries shows that ‘freedom’ actually equates to happiness rather than money. Thinking laterally, how does this translate into business and technology? In an organisation that had no Product Management Role there was an extreme amount of ‘freedom’ which allowed the business to fully dictate how developments were prioritized. What this meant was that each business owner had his own agenda: To make sure his development was prioritized ahead of everyone elses - regardless of the overall business impact. So at an individual level, the business owner was ‘happier’ than life with a product manager. However, organisationally, the business was not maximising the technical resource available to them. As soon as a product management role was introduced, there was significant resistance, as the developments that were found to have little overall organisational benefit were sidelined, in favour of larger, cash generating projects. The overall result is that the organisation is getting more from their resources. Sometimes freedom and happiness have negative correlation.
Source: Abdelaziz (Aziz) Musa