I just realized why I like Steve Blank's writing so much. It's because he writes about sales and marketing as if it were engineering. And I have a feeling it's not just how he writes about it, but also how he approaches it.
Well said. Engineers shouldn't be afraid of sales or marketing, and can often do it as well or better than "business types". Treating it as a separate world sets up an unhealthy dynamic.
In my experience, this dynamic is more often than not created by the "business types" who tend to think that if you can do engineering, you can't do sales & marketing.
But I agree, the engineers who can do it are often many times more effective than those without an engineering background. It all depends on the person.
tend to think that if you can do engineering, you can't do sales & marketing.
No, they know you can and are protecting their turf. That's a warning sign that they aren't very good at what they do. Just as an engineer who blindly disparages marketing is foolish - without those guys being on the ball your chances of getting paid goes way down.
I got the book at the recommendation of someone else on HN. It's really good.
Basically, his idea is that the traditional product development process doesn't work well for startup companies. He advocates a customer development process where you continuously evaluate your market, instead of just building something and burning through money before you realize there's nobody to buy your product.
it is called social engineering. "Business" types enforce the split, because "managing" engineers gives social power far easier than sweating yourself through the actual process of creating something for real.
The only catch is, you need to remember to give ribbons away and to make sure that your mushrooms are exchangeable/disposable: otherwise you get locked in and loose leverage.
