How much was your involvement in the product itself as an engineer given the fast paced development? If you were, did you feel it would be easier to just do whatever you're told instead of calling the shots?
Previously at Uber, Skyscanner, Skype/Microsoft. I love to help people grow and share what I learned. I write longer articles on software engineering at blog.pragmaticengineer.com.
I work with product managers, who are ultimately responsible for the strategy, and prioritizing what we work on. However, it's a pretty informal environment, and we talk a lot about what we should and should not work on. Engineers bring suggestions to the table all the time, which we debate with product and decide what to work on. Many of the engineers are what I like to call Product-minded software engineers and I wrote about this in more detail here.
Engineers don't call shots by themselves, but definitely have a strong say. And if you don't want to have a say, you can defer to doing this.
I personally like having a say in what I build and understanding why. The last time I was told "shut up and do what we tell you", I quit because of this. I'm sure there are people who have no problem on being heads down and doing things, even if they don't understand the why behind it, but I am not one of those people.
"Product-minded software engineers" sounds very apt to me. I feel I would prefer to work in a place where I have a say in what I'm doing as well, on the other hand I have friends who just like to do what they're told and then go home and play Minecraft. Is it possible to transition to Product with an engineering background or are all those business folks?
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How much was your involvement in the product itself as an engineer given the fast paced development? If you were, did you feel it would be easier to just do whatever you're told instead of calling the shots?
I work with product managers, who are ultimately responsible for the strategy, and prioritizing what we work on. However, it's a pretty informal environment, and we talk a lot about what we should and should not work on. Engineers bring suggestions to the table all the time, which we debate with product and decide what to work on. Many of the engineers are what I like to call Product-minded software engineers and I wrote about this in more detail here.
Engineers don't call shots by themselves, but definitely have a strong say. And if you don't want to have a say, you can defer to doing this.
I personally like having a say in what I build and understanding why. The last time I was told "shut up and do what we tell you", I quit because of this. I'm sure there are people who have no problem on being heads down and doing things, even if they don't understand the why behind it, but I am not one of those people.
"Product-minded software engineers" sounds very apt to me. I feel I would prefer to work in a place where I have a say in what I'm doing as well, on the other hand I have friends who just like to do what they're told and then go home and play Minecraft. Is it possible to transition to Product with an engineering background or are all those business folks?