Agreed. And to answer jchalsoo’s question a bit as well, I feel like my time at frog was like grad school. What I learned there about opportunity identification, ethnographic research, workshopping to produce organizational alignment, synthesis sessions, and stewarding organizational change is invaluable to what I do every day now. It also gave me the ability to leverage my experience in product to brand positioning, retail environments, mobile and web, which all factor into my responsibilities.
What made it all the richer is that is was supplemental to years of experience in product development, and now I have the opportunity to bring that mix to an organization that makes things.
Not saying this is “right”, just that it works for me personally and that I love it. For me to be comfortable I need both accountability and authority over to the end result.