Interlude - Index of

Managing Engineers | 107
On the other hand, if you are missing customer-centric
thinking, you get an elegant design that works great and ships
on time, except customers don’t care very much about the
problem it solves. They might admire it as a technical achievement,
but they won’t buy it. Tom Mendoza put it best: “Customers
don’t open their wallets unless they are feeling pain.”
Venture capitalists often think in terms of the same three
areas when deciding whether to fund companies. They argue
about whether it is the technology that is more important, the
managerial skill and experience, or the market opportunity,
but in the end they recognize that all three are critical. In the
case of NetApp, I think the VCs recognized our technical skill,
but they didn’t think we had enough management experience
or a good understanding of our target market.
Thinking about organizations this way is a great example
of management-centric thinking. For a manager assembling a
team, it’s important to make sure that you have all three thinking
styles represented in your group. Even for nonmanagers,
I would argue that it’s useful to understand this model so you
can tell if you are in a healthy team. Understanding the different
styles of thinking can help you value them. Don’t hate
people for being different—rely on them for their special skill.
Finally, figuring out which style you love is critical to choosing
a satisfying career path.
••
When I became VP of engineering, I often went to Tom for
management advice. He always asked about the people working
on the problem: Who was involved? What else were they
working on? What were they good at?