Thoughts on product engineering?

Posted by ObsidianGanthet@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 7 comments

I'm a software dev with about 6ish years of experience. Recently I was interviewing for a product engineer role (the team does not have a PM). I found it to be an interesting setup, not something I see often. Seems like an incredibly specialised role?

People who have worked with/as product engineers, what are your experiences, and what kind of company/product was it?

Is product engineering a gateway to becoming a PM eventually? Is it a role where you have to be 65% a PM, 65% an IC, and available 130% of the time? Would be interested to hear your thoughts

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ZealousidealPace8444@reddit

In my experience working with dev teams, what’s often missing isn’t skill, but visibility: visibility into how decisions connect to user outcomes, trade-offs, and business context. And that’s not something you can easily teach, it builds over time with the right exposure.

Lately, I’ve been working on a small side project to explore this: lightweight, contextual prompts in Slack that nudge engineers to reflect on the why behind their work, not as training, but to build pattern recognition and product instinct over time.

Curious how others here learned to make that shift: from task-focused execution to more holistic product thinking? What helped you (or your team) make that leap?

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hardik-s@reddit

Product engineering is fundamentally about creating meaningful, user-centric experiences. It’s not just about writing code but about understanding the needs of users and translating those into intuitive and functional features. A product engineer’s role is dynamic, sitting at the intersection of creativity and practicality. Every day brings the challenge of balancing innovation with real-world constraints like deadlines, technical feasibility, and resource availability. What makes this role unique is its collaborative nature—working closely with designers, product managers, and other stakeholders to ensure the end product aligns with the business vision while delighting users.

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ObsidianGanthet@reddit (OP)

why does this sound like an AI

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