I work for a company like this right now. About the same number of employees, same mistakes and same time to market on innovative stuff. Here's my two cents on how this can happen:
> Which product manager in his/her right mind
There is no product manager. There is a project manager. They steer on deadlines and functionality, nothing more.
> How do these managers get jobs in these big name companies?
Because they talk well and they've delivered before. Have they delivered something good and secure? Nobody cares, deadlines were met and functionality was shipped.
I notice the same in IT sales. Sell too much for too little, collect bonus and move on. Nobody comes back to you if the project fails or becomes too expensive and if they do, you blame the one engineer you had glance over the proposal before sending it to the client.
> It's the best way to uncover shoddy dev and security practices
As a project manager, that's the last thing you want. First, it'll show what you didn't manage well. Secondly, it costs money. Finally, negative findings will delay delivery and means you failed to deliver on time, which is your only priority.
Maybe I sound overly cynical, but I've seen this exact thing happen everywhere, from small firms to Fortune 500 to government.
> Which product manager in his/her right mind
There is no product manager. There is a project manager. They steer on deadlines and functionality, nothing more.
> How do these managers get jobs in these big name companies?
Because they talk well and they've delivered before. Have they delivered something good and secure? Nobody cares, deadlines were met and functionality was shipped.
I notice the same in IT sales. Sell too much for too little, collect bonus and move on. Nobody comes back to you if the project fails or becomes too expensive and if they do, you blame the one engineer you had glance over the proposal before sending it to the client.
> It's the best way to uncover shoddy dev and security practices
As a project manager, that's the last thing you want. First, it'll show what you didn't manage well. Secondly, it costs money. Finally, negative findings will delay delivery and means you failed to deliver on time, which is your only priority.
Maybe I sound overly cynical, but I've seen this exact thing happen everywhere, from small firms to Fortune 500 to government.