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Praveen Rajamani
Praveen Rajamani

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Mastering the Product Mindset: 10 Key Lessons for Me as a Software Engineer - 2025

This is a submission for the 2025 New Year Writing challenge: Compiling 2025.

Happy New Year, Everyone! I am already having a great start to the new year and have personally made a lot of changes to my lifestyle and am sticking to them. It is now time to align my career goals with the experiences I have gained in the past and the strategies I believe will undoubtedly help me advance to the next level.

Software engineers are much more than just programmers in the fast-paced tech industry of today they are also inventors, problem solvers, and vital contributors to the success of products. Ordinary engineers are distinguished from those who provide significant, long-lasting solutions by having a strong product perspective. To succeed as a software engineer with a product mindset, I will follow this simple guide I have outlined for myself and my fellow engineers. It highlights five essential practices to embrace and five habits to break.

5 Things to Build

5 things to build

1. User-Focused Solutions

The ability of a product to solve problems in the real world is its foundation. I will spend time learning about people's problems through in-depth investigation, criticism, and compassion and creating solutions that genuinely improve their encounters.

2. Robust and Scalable Code

In addition to operating efficiently now, I will make sure my systems are ready for expansion in the future. I will give performance and scalability top priority while maintaining a simple, maintainable design.

3. Teamwork

No great product is ever made in a silos. Collaborating closely with cross-functional teams and stakeholders to establish common goals and align objectives. I believe talking openly and clearly with the team will ensure the product we are building solves the correct problems for users.

4. Automation of Routine Tasks

I will try my best to automate routine processes like testing, deployment, and monitoring to streamline them and reduce errors. Automation will increase productivity and speed up user value delivery.

5. Data-Based Viewpoints

My primary goal for this year is to integrate logging and analytics in order to gather useful insights for any feature I am developing. I aim to utilise this data to enhance the product progressively by grounding it in actual user behaviour.

5 Things to Leave

5 things to leave

1. Chasing Technical Perfection

Obsessing over flawless code can delay delivering value. Instead, I strongly believe in focusing on functionality and user impact rather than over-engineering every detail.

2. Siloed Thinking

Sometimes, I tend to work in isolation. However, I have come to realise that siloed thinking will lead nowhere, and I will strive to broaden my perspective by considering business objectives and user needs, not just technical aspects.

3. Short-Term Solutions

Quick fixes may seem efficient, but they often lead to technical debt that hampers future progress. I have learned this from my previous project, and therefore I will invest my time in sustainable, long-term solutions, even if they require additional effort at the outset.

4. Adding Unnecessary Features

Resist the urge to add features unnecessarily. Whenever I am assigned a new feature, I will validate its relevance and ensure it enhances the product's core value before implementation.

5. Resistance to Change

The tech industry is changing quickly. Give up on outmoded methods, procedures, and routines that don't advance the product's objectives. To stay competitive, we should keep our minds open to new developments and trends.

The Bottom Line

Adopting a product mindset involves more than writing clean code - it is about understanding user needs, fostering collaboration, and making choices that emphasize long-term value over short-term fixes. By focusing on the fundamentals of product development and consciously avoiding counterproductive behaviours, we can grow into a well-rounded software engineer who delivers impactful, value-driven solutions.

Remember, our ultimate goal is to create products that are not just functional but truly meaningful. Aim for our code to make a lasting difference !.

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Top comments (1)

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zethix profile image
Andrey Rusev

Nice plan! :)

...our ultimate goal is to create products that are not just functional but truly meaningful

There's nothing more satisfying than seeing your code (solution, etc) being used - seeing that people find meaning in it :)

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