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Slow Days·말로만 듣던 마흔

A Crap Question — "What Do You Think a Planner Is?"

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In planning or marketing teams, 

once you've been around a while, you often lob these questions at juniors.  

'What do you think a planner is?'

'What do you think a marketer is?'

 

 

Come on, stop the BS..

 

Then, before that — what do you think a designer is? what do you think a developer is?

Why don't we ask those? Right? Because we think it's so obvious, we don't bother..

A designer is someone who designs, a developer is someone who develops. What else would they be? 

The very fact that we can pontificate about a 'planner's' role and meaning in such abstract terms is itself,

isn't it already evidence that a 'planner' has no clearly defined R&R? Please.. let's stop spitting at the sky.

 

And, before even defining what a planner is, the other way around:

if I at least say what I think a planner is NOT,  a planner is not a leader.

At the very least, not someone who evaluates like a commander with a sash, or leads as a representative. 

 

A planner can be a project leader, but I don't think being a planner makes you a project leader.

 

Setting all that aside, the question itself is already wrong.

You should have asked, "what do you think 'which kind of' planner is?"..

"What do you think a planner is?" is, I suspect, kind of like asking "do you like food? do you like exercise?" — isn't it?

This English version was translated by Claude.

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Pleasant Charles — UI/UX researcher at AIT. Keeping notes on design, planning, and slow days here since 2010.

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