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Product Thinking

5 min read

Frontend

You're closest to the user. 'Will they understand this?' and 'What happens when this fails?' — you can answer first.

Eng Manager

Your team ships features. Product thinking is what turns 'done' into 'actually valuable.'

Product Thinking

TL;DR

  • Product thinking = understanding why we're building, not just what.
  • AI can implement specs. It can't tell you the spec is wrong.
  • The engineers who survive are the ones who ask "should we build this?" before "how do we build this?"

You're not a code monkey. You're not an order-taker. You're someone who translates fuzzy problems into solutions. The fuzzy part — understanding user needs, business goals, and trade-offs — is where AI can't help. That's your moat.

What Product Thinking Actually Means

It's not "become a product manager." It's:

  • Asking "why" before "how" — Why are we building this? What problem does it solve? For whom?
  • Understanding success — How do we know it worked? Metrics? Feedback? Revenue?
  • Seeing the edges — What happens when the user does the wrong thing? When the API is slow? When the feature is misunderstood?

AI can write the code. It can't tell you the feature is solving the wrong problem.

The "Order Taker" Trap

Someone gives you a ticket. You build it. Done. That used to be fine. Now AI can build the ticket too. The question is: who catches when the ticket is wrong?

The engineer who says "wait, this assumes users have X, but our data shows they have Y" — that's product thinking. The engineer who ships the ticket as written and discovers later it didn't move the needle — that's replaceable.

How to Develop It

  1. Read the PRD (or whatever you have). Not just the acceptance criteria. The problem statement. The success metrics.
  2. Talk to users (or support, or sales). What do they actually complain about? What do they love?
  3. Ask in planning — "What happens if this doesn't work? What's the plan B?"
  4. Ship and look at data — Did it work? Why or why not? Loop back.

You don't need a product title. You need curiosity and a habit of asking.

The AI Angle

AI will get better at generating specs, user stories, and even product analyses. It won't have the context of your users, your market, or your company's strategy. You do. Product thinking is applying that context before you (or AI) write a line of code.

Quick Check

Someone gives you a ticket. AI could build it. What makes you irreplaceable?

Do This Next

  1. Pick one feature you shipped recently. Write down: What problem did it solve? How did we measure success? Did it work? If you can't answer, start asking next time.
  2. In your next planning session, ask one "why" or "what if" question. See what happens.