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Engineering

Product-Focused Engineering

175 people are learning this skill right now!
Product-Focused Engineering is part of our Engineering Career Leveling Framework. Explore next steps in your career from this industry-standard model.

  1. What are Product Engineers?

    • Uber logo
      The Product-Minded Software Engineer

      Gergely Orosz, Engineering Manager, Uber

      Gergely summarizes 9 traits he's observed in product-minded engineers, and tips for any engineer to become more product-minded. Product-minded engineers have a deep interest in the product itself, understand why decisions are made, and enjoy being involved in making product decisions. They are proactive with product ideas/opinions, have an interest in the business, user behavior, and data on this, possess curiosity and a keen interest in "why?", have strong communication skills and relationships with non-engineers, and offer product/engineering tradeoffs upfront. Product-minded engineers are often key contributors to user-facing features and become team leads.
    • Atlassian logo
      Product engineers

      Sherif Mansour, Distinguished Product Manager, Atlassian

      Sherif, a product manager, identifies the characteristics of a product engineer and how product managers can work with them most effectively.

  2. Common Product-Focused Engineering Challenges

    These are common challenges people face when gaining expertise in product-focused engineering. Tackling these challenges head-on can help you learn this skill quicker.

    I'm a software engineer at a startup that is transitioning from a project-focused approach to a more product-focused engineering culture. The challenge is that I'm used to working on short-term projects with clear deliverables, but now I'm expected to think more holistically about the product and long-term roadmap. What can I do to shift my mindset and become more product-focused in my thinking?
    I'm an engineering leader at a mid-sized tech company. We have a strong product-focused engineering culture, but I'm struggling to balance the demands of the product team with the technical debt and infrastructure improvements that my engineering team needs to address. How can I effectively manage the competing priorities of the product team and the engineering team to ensure a balance between new features and technical debt?
    Add your own to track your progress and inspire others

  3. How to Build a Product-Focused Engineering Team

    • Pared logo
      How to Build a Product Focused Engineering Organization

      Wayne Pan, VP of Product & Engineering, Pared

      Wayne shares five organization-level practices that help make engineering an innovation center, not just ticket takers: 1. Close the distance between creators and users 2. Take everybody on the journey 3. Sit together 4. Ideas come from everybody 5. Shared product and engineering priorities