In an age when any wannabe startup CEO or even your friendly salesperson is vibe-coding a random business process into a cringy new SaaS app that they think is going to change the world, everyone thinks they can build product, but there are some spectacular failure stories out there to prove that not everyone can.
We’ve all seen the wreckage: unsanitized inputs leading to embarrassing breaches, databases left wide open, and secrets committed straight to public repos. The market is littered with broken products built by people who thought coding was the hard part.
Meanwhile, engineers, the people who actually know how to build things that work, are sitting on the sidelines waiting for someone else to tell them what to build. This is backwards, and it’s time we fixed it.
In my experience watching this dynamic play out, the engineers who thrive aren’t just writing cleaner code or mastering the latest framework. They’re the ones who stopped waiting for permission and started owning the entire problem-solution cycle.
What’s Stopping Us?
The comfortable trap most engineers fall into
In my experience, most engineers retreat into technical complexity because it’s intellectually safe. We obsess over the latest JavaScript framework, debate the merits of microservices versus monoliths, and spend hours optimizing algorithms that might save milliseconds. It feels like important work, and in our bubble, it is.
But here’s what I’ve learned: while you’re perfecting your dependency injection patterns, someone else is shipping a feature that actually moves the business forward. They might be doing it with duct tape and prayers, but they’re solving real problems for real users.
Technical excellence matters, but only when it serves user value.
Waiting for the perfect requirements
This is the killer. In my experience, engineers who wait for perfectly specified requirements never ship anything meaningful. Business problems are messy, user needs evolve, and the market doesn’t wait for your analysis paralysis.
What I’ve observed is that the engineers making real impact are the ones who see a gap and start building, not the ones waiting for someone to write a detailed PRD first.
Letting product managers become bottlenecks
Here’s a hard truth: in fast-moving organizations, waiting for a product person to have an opinion on every technical decision is increasingly the bottleneck. Product managers are spread thin, context-switching between priorities, and often lack the technical depth to make optimal decisions about implementation.
This creates an opportunity. Instead of waiting for direction, engineers can step up and start owning more of the problem-solution cycle.
What if we didn’t wait for their opinion but instead took the initiative and became the Product Engineers we should be?
The Product Engineer Mindset
The future belongs to engineers who can bridge the gap between technical execution and business value. This doesn’t mean becoming a product manager—it means becoming an engineer who thinks like an owner.
Understanding the “Why” Behind Every Feature
Instead of asking “How should I implement this?”, product-aware engineers ask “Why are we building this?” and “What problem does this actually solve?” They dig into user research, look at analytics, and understand the business metrics that matter.
When you understand the why, you can propose better solutions. Maybe that complex feature request could be solved with a simple configuration change. Maybe there’s a technical approach that delivers 80% of the value with 20% of the effort.
Becoming fluent in business language
Product engineers who learn to speak in terms of user outcomes, conversion rates, and business impact, rather than just technical metrics, win. They don’t just say “I improved query performance by 40%”—they say “I reduced page load time, which should improve our conversion rate based on the data we’ve seen.”
This isn’t about abandoning technical excellence—it’s about connecting that excellence to outcomes that actually matter.
Taking Initiative on Problem-Solving
Instead of waiting for perfectly specified requirements, product engineers identify problems and propose solutions. They see gaps in the user experience and build tools to fill them. They notice inefficiencies in business processes and create systems to address them.
This proactive approach means moving faster and building things that actually matter.
The Skills of Tomorrow’s Engineer
Customer empathy and user research
The best product-minded engineers I’ve worked with spend time with actual users. They read support tickets, sit in on user interviews, and use their own products regularly. They understand that elegant code is worthless if it doesn’t solve real problems for real people.
Data-driven decision making
They know how to read analytics, set up proper measurement, and interpret user behavior. More importantly, they know when to trust the data and when to trust their instincts about what users actually need.
Business model awareness
They understand how their company makes money and how their technical decisions impact the bottom line. They know the difference between features that drive acquisition, retention, and revenue.
Rapid prototyping and validation
Product engineers are comfortable building quick, imperfect solutions to test hypotheses. They know when to prioritize speed over perfection and how to validate ideas before committing to full implementations.
Don’t wait for permission
Here’s what I’ve learned from watching engineers who successfully make this transition: they don’t wait for permission to start thinking like owners.
Start Small, Think Big
Begin by understanding the business impact of what you’re already building. Ask questions about user behavior. Volunteer to join customer calls or review user feedback. Most product people welcome engineers who want to understand the bigger picture.
Build Relationships Across Functions
Cultivate relationships with product managers, designers, and business stakeholders. Share your technical insights about what’s possible, what’s difficult, and what alternatives exist. Most product people welcome engineers who want to understand the bigger picture.
Build things that solve problems you’ve observed
See a gap in the user experience? Build a tool to fill it. Notice an inefficiency in a business process? Create a system to address it. Start small, but start solving problems before someone tells you to.
Measure and communicate impact
Track the business outcomes of your technical decisions. Did that performance optimization actually improve user retention? Did the new feature drive the engagement you expected? Learn to tell stories with data that connect your work to business results.
The competitive advantage you can’t afford to ignore
In my experience, engineers who can bridge technical excellence with business understanding will always be in demand. They’re the ones who build things that matter, who move fast without breaking things that count, and who can see around corners to anticipate what needs to be built next.
While everyone else is debating whether AI will replace programmers, these engineers are becoming irreplaceable by owning problems, not just implementations.
The future belongs to engineers who can see the bigger picture while maintaining technical excellence. But it requires stepping out of your comfort zone and taking ownership of outcomes, not just outputs.
Don’t wait for someone else to tell you what to build. Start building what needs to exist.
The market is full of people trying to create products who don’t understand how to build them properly. As an engineer, you have the foundation to do both. The question is: will you step up and claim that opportunity, or will you keep waiting for permission that’s never coming?