Hi,
PM jobs at crypto projects continue trickling along. My sense is we don’t see more for a few reasons. The crypto evolution is in its early stages. #BUIDL’ers are building. They’re figuring out what works and what doesn’t.
People are starting to talk about user adoption. It’s still not a focus of most #BUIDL’ers in the space.
The next step feels like a focus on UX/UI. This feels like a step in the right direction, i.e.
Build something you hope people will use
Make it usable
Turn it into something people actually will use
Make it better and more usable
Repeat
Project managers can help starting between 1 and 2. Product managers can help starting between 2 and 3.
Some crypto projects are between 1 and 2. A smaller number are between 2 and 3.
My sense is the number of PM’s will increase as the number of projects in each stage increase. That said, I feel there’s a second reason we don’t see more crypto PM’s.
I get the sense PM’s are still very under-valued in crypto. In fact, my experience has been it’s easy for PM’s to go unappreciated most of the time, anyway.
The nature of a project manager’s work, particularly, is like an insurance policy. You only appreciate it when something goes wrong.
Project management feels invisible when things are going according to plan. Product management is similar. Although the pain points it solves may be more visible and a little sexier.
There’s also a desire to self-organize in crypto. Centralized leadership goes against the concept of decentralization. That said, I do believe some degree of centralized coordination and direction is necessary, for ideas to become reality. This will be the topic of another issue though.
In conclusion, it feels like the early stage of crypto’s evolution, combined with a general under-appreciation of PM’s and resistance to centralized leadership is why we’re not seeing many PM’s in the space right now.
My sense is that as crypto evolves and the pain points PM’s take away become more painful, the number will increase.
Now, on to the jobs!
Product Manager at Gnosis
Project Manager at Aragon DAC
Project Manager at Bloxroute Labs
Project Manager at P2P Models
Product Manager at Tendermint
Product Manager at Oasis Labs
Catch you next week,
Chris / @cjremus