Makers Tools vs. Managers Tools: Who's Winning?

[onskateio]

Multiplayer, hyper-collaborative tools like Figma, Google Sheets, Replit… are built with the Maker in mind. They create rich, vertical contexts for designers, developers, analysts to bloom & build.

When both specialized work and collab happen speedily and losslessly within these apps, for a Maker to go to Slack, email and/or Jira becomes a channel of last resort.

But Managers live on these tools! And management means setting deadlines, switching "gears", unblocking others, shifting priorities... things you can't do on the Makers' tools.

My thesis is that on this massive, abrupt shift to working remotely, management tools not only haven't been able to keep up with a Manager's needs, but they have created new jobs-to-be-done. Whatever JTBD you may think of, it all comes down to one key constraint: finite time.

Prior to the covid-19 crisis, time was dealt with 20th-century, office-first, protocols. Hierarchical, cultural and physical protocols that double down as constraints: seniority, office distribution, culture, capital allocation, permissions, etc. Basically, a CEO's unit-of-time was 1,000x more valuable than a jr sales rep's.

It is baffling then to realize how far these management tools are from replicating those real-life constraints. While we live in a physical world of -certain- scarcity, the Manager's tech stack is an open firehose of emails, notifications, channels and threads that keep piling on until the system collapses... or he/she breaks down.

To reach parity and increase productivity across teams, the tech stack should aim to replicate the best out of these constraints, leaving the "bad" ones (9-to-5, all-sync, top-down, command & control, etc.) behind.

By "replicating" I don't mean adding new features (copied from competitors); I mean toppling a few paradigms off their pedestals prior to start building a more decentralized, constrained-ridden (less-is-more) management tool.

Thoughts?

[buffington]

I'm struggling to understand what it is you're even asking.

I think, in part, this is because you make several assertions that either make no sense, or are so peppered with "biz-dev-speak" that I can't even understand what the original assertion is.

One example:

> time was dealt with 20th-century, office-first, protocols. Hierarchical, cultural and physical protocols that double down as constraints...

What does that even mean? How does one "double down" "constraints"? What is a "physical protocol"?

Would it be difficult to just ask the question without all the bizarre preamble?

Something like "how are makers and managers using software and services in 2022, and how does that compare to pre-covid use?"

[onskateio]

I appreciate your suggestions. I will tone it down, simplify it and try to repost it again.

[qppo]

I think you have a false dichotomy.

Slack and email are for talking to people who I'm not on the phone/video conference with or are away from their desk when I'm working. That is an orthogonal problem from the "Maker" tools you listed.

Jira is for specifying future tasks and goals, it's also an orthogonal problem to the tools you listed.

[onskateio]

You're right. I like the concept of "orthogonal tools" (definitely better than cross-sectional).

I see Makers' tools as "vertical" (niche, contextual, expert tools) vs Managers' tools as "orthogonal".

All company workers use Slack (or Jira or email) but many hate it (mostly Makers). Managers, on the other hand, have no better tools to align with Makers.

[ffhhj]

You mean an app with email and calendar?

[onskateio]

Not really. Calendar and email are 2 separate tools that can be bundled together (Gmail) or unbundled (Superhuman for email, maybe Reclaim for calendar).

IM, email, calendars, to-do lists, PM tools... are all orthogonal tools. Great for managers (who need a cross-sectional view of product, tech, ops, sales, marketing, etc). Not so much for "makers" who mostly work in 1-2 tools.