When I put on my Idealist, UX hat, I understand the concept of a Design Technologist role, and I think there is some legitimate utility in it.
However, when I put on my Realist, Business owner/manager hat, I don’t care for the idea of a Design Technologist role whatsoever.
Why would I add an additional salary to the payroll in exchange for skills that (let’s be honest) should already be present between UX Designers and Developers? From that standpoint, the DT role seems like an unnecessary “middle man” role — A superfluous, unnecessarily expensive division of labor.
Worst of all, I think the existence of such a role tacitly excuses UX Designers and Developers from having to look at the big picture and fully own their projects from start to finish. Compartmentalized thinking (also known as “working in a silo”) is already a tough obstacle for teams in the software field. I’ve discovered that solving this problem requires expecting more from the current roles and the people in them rather than inventing new roles, further shrinking individual responsibilities.