Loading archive
Loading archive
People × time
Follow a role through the six eras. Each note comes from the archive’s role and era records; an empty cell means the current source has no entry for that pairing.
No entry
Not described in this era.
Frontend (precursor)
Web production, hand-writing HTML and dealing with compatibility between IE and Netscape. The term “frontend” did not yet exist.
Frontend
Split off from "web production." The daily work is writing standards-compliant HTML/CSS, building interactions with Ajax and jQuery, and handling IE6 compatibility. During this period, major domestic companies set up dedicated frontend or UED teams.
Frontend
Builds mobile H5 and responsive pages, uses Node.js for build tools and a middle layer, and SPA frameworks appear (AngularJS, and React in 2013).
Frontend
Engineering tooling (Webpack, TypeScript), "big frontend" (mini programs, cross-platform), the BFF layer, and the development of component libraries and design systems.
Frontend
Using AI to generate and rewrite code, building conversational interfaces (streaming output, generative UI), and building operating interfaces for agents.
1969–1993 → 2023–present
Backend
Systems programmers, writing operating systems, network protocol stacks, and Unix tools.
Backend (precursor)
CGI, Perl, and ASP programmers, writing message boards, forums, and news publishing systems, using Access and MySQL databases.
Backend
Shifts toward high concurrency and distributed systems. The daily work is sharding databases and tables, adding caching, optimizing slow queries, and writing business logic in Java/PHP.
Backend
Writes APIs, builds high-concurrency systems (flash sales, ticket rushes, red packets), and begins splitting services apart.
Backend
Microservices and cloud-native development, increasingly wired into data compliance requirements (masking, permissions, auditing).
Backend
Wrapping business capabilities into tools the model can call (API/MCP), and handling asynchronous long-running tasks, cost and rate limiting.
1969–1993 → 2023–present
No entry
Not described in this era.
Product (precursor)
Portal channel editors and website planners, deciding what went in each channel and how pages were arranged.
Product
The product manager system spreads across internet companies. The daily work is writing requirement documents, drawing prototypes, following up on iterations, and reviewing user feedback.
Product
Mobile product managers focus on growth, retention, and conversion, and "user growth" becomes a methodology.
Product
Data-driven product managers looking at funnels, running experiments and driving growth; the "strategy product manager" emerged.
Product
AI product managers who define "the boundary of model capability plus a fallback experience", using evaluations to replace part of the requirements document.
1969–1993 → 2023–present
No entry
Not described in this era.
Design
Web graphic artists and web designers, whose daily work was slicing images, laying out pages with tables, and making Flash animations.
Design
Splits into interaction design and visual design, doing user research and usability testing, and establishing the UED way of working.
Design
UI design moves from skeuomorphic to flat (iOS 7 in 2013), centering on app interfaces and icons, and design guidelines start to become systematic.
Design
Design systems, design tokens, co-building component libraries with engineering, and measuring experience.
Design
AI-native interaction (conversation, multimodality, presenting uncertain results), with AI-generated assets entering the design workflow.
1969–1993 → 2023–present
No entry
Not described in this era.
No entry
Not described in this era.
Operations
Content, community, and e-commerce operations took shape in this period, corresponding to the operations role page `/roles/operations/`.
Operations
User growth and campaign operations become the core work, corresponding to the operations role page `/roles/operations/`.
No entry
Not described in this era.
No entry
Not described in this era.
1969–1993 → 2023–present
Security
Incident responders, with the starting point being the Morris worm.
Security
Engineers at antivirus and firewall vendors, and members of the early hacker community.
Security
Web security engineers and penetration testers, doing vulnerability scanning, MLPS assessments, and incident response.
Security
Mobile application security and business security (anti-cheating, anti-fraud), with enterprise SRCs collaborating with white-hat hackers.
Security
Expanding from offense and defense into compliance. New data security and privacy compliance roles appeared (the DPO under GDPR, the person in charge of personal information protection domestically), working on zero trust and supply chain security.
Security
AI security (prompt injection, jailbreaks, the model supply chain), content security and filing compliance, and labeling of generated content.
1969–1993 → 2023–present
Ops
System administrators, managing machine rooms, accounts, tape backups, and network connectivity.
Ops
Network administrators and system administrators, managing server hosting, dial-up access, and mail servers.
Ops
System administrators (SA) and database administrators (DBA), responsible for managing hundreds or thousands of servers, monitoring, and releases.
Ops
Shifts from manual operations toward automation and DevOps, and starts using cloud servers.
Ops → SRE & platform engineering
Setting SLOs, managing Kubernetes clusters, building monitoring and alerting, and running on-call and incident reviews. The ops role page at `/roles/devops/` marks the "Ops → SRE" evolution.
Ops
LLMOps and GPU cluster operations, responsible for model versions and for the stability and cost of inference services.
1969–1993 → 2023–present
No entry
Not described in this era.
No entry
Not described in this era.
Full-stack (precursor)
Small teams built both the page and the server; LAMP stacks made one developer responsible for the whole request path.
Full-stack
A single developer could ship a mobile client and an API, often with a small team and a managed backend.
Full-stack
Product teams owned the interface, the API and the deploy pipeline, with cloud services replacing much of the server room.
Full-stack
Builds the interface, retrieval and tool-calling layer around a model, and owns the evaluation loop.
1969–1993 → 2023–present