By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn
Teresa Torres argues that job titles and disciplinary boundaries matter for advancing each craft, since naming skills lets people debate, invest in, and share them. However, she warns that the same labels become harmful when used to box in individuals on a team. Every person brings a unique mix of skills that often extends beyond their title, and small product teams can't staff every title anyway. Strong teams therefore allocate work by who has the relevant skills rather than by role labels. The piece sets up her broader point that product teams should share responsibility for delivery.
01Key takeaways
- Discipline names help a field mature because they give people something concrete to discuss, invest in, and share.
- Don't use job titles as walls between people; they describe a starting point, not a complete skill set.
- Ask who on the team has the skill for a task, even when it falls outside their official title.
- Make sure every necessary role is covered by someone, even if small teams can't hire a dedicated person for each title.
- Let people contribute complementary strengths, like a designer excelling at surveys or a PM strong with data.
02Key sections
- Why labels matter
- Blurred lines between design, product, growth, and engineering have fueled debates that sharpen each discipline. Naming a discipline makes it easier to learn, invest in, and advance it.
- When labels become a problem
- Using titles to define boundaries between people, rather than fields, leads to pigeonholing. Individuals have unique skill sets that rarely match their job descriptions.
- Assign work by skill, not title
- Strong teams decide who does what based on capabilities, such as a designer running surveys or a PM analyzing data. Every team needs to cover all necessary roles, even if few people hold each title.
- Looking ahead
- The essay connects this idea to shared responsibility for delivery and previews future posts on common delivery challenges.
03From the post
“If you’ve been reading Product Talk for long, you’ve probably noticed that I sometimes blur the lines between product management and user experience design. I started out as an interaction designer back in 1999. Back then we were arguing about the differences between interaction design, user interface design,”
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.