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Ex-engineers are some of the best product managers.
Some of them transitioned into product because of a desire to try something new, but most of them transitioned because they weren’t superb engineers.
There’s nothing wrong with being an average engineer, but there’s definitely something wrong with staying a path that wasn’t carved out for you. I applaud those who have made the switch.
Ex-engineering product managers are creative and empathetic. They might have initially entered software because of their desire to solve problems in an ever-digital society. However, they typically don’t follow the stereotype of the “don’t talk to me while I code all night” programmer. They relate more with user problems, and have a desire to work with various stakeholders to solve those problems. As a result, they don’t tend to stay in a traditional SWE role, where the opportunity to talk to users (especially at large corporations) is few and far between.
Being an ex-engineer has benefits that can’t be easily taught to your run-of-the-mill product manager. Engineers are taught (whether in school or through experience) to think logically and build solutions through first principles thinking. This ability allows a product manager to decompose a seemingly insurmountable set of different requirements into digestable chunks that can be fed through the product pipeline.
The experience of working as an engineer is also important. This allows a product manager to emphasize with the engineers and understand why certain feature requests are not feasible
At smaller companies, product managers may be in charge of design. Engineering experience enables a streamlined relationship between dev and design: ex-engineering product managers can immediately see potential issues in implementing a design proposal, and address them with the designers before it ever reaches the eyes of an engineer.
In short: Product managers operate at the intersection of design and engineering. They must be able to identify and solve user problems, but also understand and work with engineering limitations.
To engineers considering a switch to product: know that you have a unique advantage and leverage it as much as possible.
To product managers without an engineering background: know that all hope isn’t lost. You can learn to think of an engineer by:
- Seeking feedback often from engineering
- Understanding and incorporating said feedback into future work
- Being constantly curious about how software development works (perhaps even learning some programming yourself!)
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