How Paraducers View Producers

In researching this book, I came upon several quotes by Paraducers in management who had utter contempt for the Producers in their companies. Sales people speak of the software people as “propeller heads,” and the software crew is more creative in their responses, if not downright pornographic. Some of this wasted energy can be helped by communication, but it’s not 100% curable.

Producers are generally well educated, not always in school, but they learn from everything they do and every mistake they make. They cannot help but be knowledgeable in their area. This, not coincidentally, is the language and vocabulary they speak.

Paraducers shift in their seats when a Producer starts talking about “user interface efficiency,” or “throttle friction,” or “CMYK separations.” Producers discuss what’s important to the project, what’s the source of the problem or opportunity, but the Paraducers (no fault of theirs) are clueless. That creates a disconnect between the groups.

Producers, to be fair, sometimes spend so much time focusing on their work that they neglect the wider issues of life, like the customer, and that grates on the Paraducers even more.

The net result is that the Paraducers’ perception of the Producers is one of narrow idiot savants. Producers see the Paraducers as technically shallow, which is true.

Since this book is not about changing Paraducers, making them love us (you can buy a thousand other books about that), our only other option is to change ourselves, as Producers.

How is this done? We must concede that the Paraducers know some stuff we don’t. Pause for a minute, close your eyes and do just that.

What do they know? They know about law and tax regulations and sales techniques, and on and on. They know how to read a balance sheet and income statement. They have visited the customer on-site and have heard their complaints. They know about financing and points and depreciation, cash flow and accounting principles. Producers skip these topics as unimportant, to their detriment.

Fortunately for us, we are Producers and have functioning, high horsepower brains. Whether you are a mechanic or scientific researcher, you have the spare neurons to study the issues your Paraducer coworkers find important. Do it, not to show them up at meetings, but to produce a better product, please your customer, and detect when you are being buffaloed!

The world is a lot bigger than your Producer slice of it. I hope you are not surprised to learn that. Many of the Paraducer’s observations are true. I bet you are surprised to learn that!

One great thing about Producers is that many of us are generalists. We should all be generalists. The Paraducers’ negative view of us is a simple hint that we have room to grow, whether they like us afterwards or not.