What are the some of the fundamentals to have a strong product sense for a software engineer?
During layoffs many engineers are working in war time mode vs peace time, especially the companies still figuring out Product market fit.
So how can I as an engineer help or challenge product direction, read data insights, do user research, etc where I am not directly involved.
I feel like there is lot going on around user research and the product goal is set but how can I provide valuable input make sure we are heading to right direction and at the same time keep working on right technical things to make product closer to its goal.
Here's a link that will introduce product design in a way that cannot possibly be covered in a single comment: https://start.uxdesign.cc/
Adding value here comes from providing a unique perspective.
Lucky for you, this is easy, since you inherently have a unique background and set of experiences. Your perspective as an engineer will be different from a designer or PM.
Another dimension, more actionable, is to cultivate unique perspectives. I have two ideas here -- I did this frequently when I was at Meta:
Related Taro resources:
Meta is unique in the industry in that it actively pushes software engineers to hybridize as product managers. In fact, it's officially documented: There is a Staff Engineer [E6] archetype at Meta called "PM/Engineer Hybrid".
PM/Eng hybrid was a big part of my Staff path back when I was Meta, and I actually talked about it in-depth here: "How can an engineer transition to product manager and do you think there is higher potential to reach VP level at PM?"
Adding on to that discussion, a very basic tactic here is to just get to know your product manager and work more closely with them. Here's some good resources around that:
So how can I as an engineer help or challenge product direction, read data insights, do user research, etc where I am not directly involved.
If you have spare cycles and are good at building up relationships with XFN parties, there's nothing stopping you from:
On top of all this, I also highly recommend building side projects to sharpen your product sense, which I cover in-depth here: "What are product skills and how to develop them in the age of ChatGpt and CopilotX?"