&gt; Any producer (not just a developer) left to their own devices builds what they want to build, and that&#x27;s not necessarily valuable to the customers or the business.<p>For a good developer &quot;what they want to build&quot; in the context of their job is at least somewhat informed by what they think will be valuable for their company.  Now, it&#x27;s completely true that developers might be prone to particular kinds of getting it wrong (let&#x27;s build a framework!), but that&#x27;s true for any kind of person including managers.<p>Point being, managers are there to help make sure that the producers are informed and aligned about the wider context.