Product thinking is a valuable skill that complements all roles. From my experience working in product, I’ve seen how crucial it is for making informed decisions. Dogfooding is great—if you're an engineer, watch sales calls, spend time with the product team, and observe new feature demos. You'll gain insights to guide future direction, identify inefficiencies, and plan for better scaling.
Also, apply this mindset to all products you use daily. Analyze how each one solves problems and consider the designers' decisions. This helps develop a strong product sense and reveals nuances in even seemingly simple elements.
With books and blogs there's a lot of information that may not be relevant. If you want something to read there are a few posts from Lenny's blog that might help: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/product-sense
Better than books and blogs is to get more involved in your company's product. Aside from using it yourself, it's helpful to read and understand the priorities of the product development org.
I also started out working in infrastructure teams for 5 years about 20 years ago. I think infrastructure teams are actually a better way to understand "product" because you are in constant contact with your "customers" (other teams) - as you mentioned.
As a programmer working on a product for a customer far away, you are less likely to have direct feedback as in an infrastructure team.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful information about product thinking. I am on starting phase of my career and everything looks new, confusing, exciting and sometimes danger, but your articles always motivates me towards my goal to become a valuable engineer. ❤️
Product thinking is a valuable skill that complements all roles. From my experience working in product, I’ve seen how crucial it is for making informed decisions. Dogfooding is great—if you're an engineer, watch sales calls, spend time with the product team, and observe new feature demos. You'll gain insights to guide future direction, identify inefficiencies, and plan for better scaling.
Also, apply this mindset to all products you use daily. Analyze how each one solves problems and consider the designers' decisions. This helps develop a strong product sense and reveals nuances in even seemingly simple elements.
hey Ryan! any good books or blogs you recommend along the lines of developing product sense?
With books and blogs there's a lot of information that may not be relevant. If you want something to read there are a few posts from Lenny's blog that might help: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/product-sense
Better than books and blogs is to get more involved in your company's product. Aside from using it yourself, it's helpful to read and understand the priorities of the product development org.
Great tips for developing devs!
I also started out working in infrastructure teams for 5 years about 20 years ago. I think infrastructure teams are actually a better way to understand "product" because you are in constant contact with your "customers" (other teams) - as you mentioned.
As a programmer working on a product for a customer far away, you are less likely to have direct feedback as in an infrastructure team.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful information about product thinking. I am on starting phase of my career and everything looks new, confusing, exciting and sometimes danger, but your articles always motivates me towards my goal to become a valuable engineer. ❤️
Happy to share this info Komal. Natural to feel that way early in your career, best of luck!