As a product manager, do you have developers formally reporting to you? That seems like a bad idea. If a PM doesn't have formal authority over developers but thinks of themselves that way, that's also bad.
No. They were not (although lines blur when an emergency happens!)
But I was certainly managing them.
It was my roadmap, so with nearly everything they worked on the buck stopped with me. I was the one who signed off on all their work, including testing. Including signing off on imperfect work in order to ship!
I don't want authority over anyone, I want to work in a creative, sane and pleasant atmosphere.
And I love to learn from people. Hopefully they can learn from me.
techer|8 years ago