Purely hypothetical (of course): Small early startup. PM is driving the engineer crazy by being hyper-agile -- changing design (not architecture) as he gets an idea into his head. (Using appropriate issue management and kanban, but on a daily -- or faster! -- not bi-weekly basis.) Meanwhile, engineer is griping and complaining about this -- wants a project plan, or at least a few days worth of one. OT1H, one could say to the engineer, this is how small early startups are. OT2H, one could tell the PM to work on a more deliberate plan/pace. OT3H, I could become a woodworker. What do you recommend?
Mate your PM isn't managing very well if he can't get his thoughts on the same path for more than a few days. Tell your PM to sit down...work his shit out...if he thinks he needs to change his mind tomorrow...tell him he better have bloody good reason a. to change his mind. and b. why he didnt think of that reason the day before when he put the plan in place. Your PM is screwing you.
Changing the design on a daily basis doesn't seem like a winning strategy - the engineer will never be able to complete anything since they're chasing a moving target, and so you'll never get an MVP that you can actually give to customers and get feedback on.<p>I don't think you necessarily need to fire your PM, but sit down with him and ask him to slow down. New ideas are great, but if he thinks about them for a while before suggesting them to the engineer, it will weed out some of the bad ideas before they get implemented. (Maybe the PM should switch to decaf coffee or get more sleep?)<p>If this continues, your engineer will burn out and/or quit.
Is it just the 3 of you? Why do you have one PM for one engineer? What is your role? What value do frequent changes bring? Is there profitability in sight when sticking with a plan?<p>Ask yourself hard questions. If you're coming on an online forum to offload the responsibility of having a hard conversation with a team member due to a fear of hurting someone's feelings, maybe you should fire yourself.