Ask HN: How much product knowledge is necessary for developers?

#1

Post by arunkumarl » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 4:24 AM UTC

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Re: Ask HN: How much product knowledge is necessary for developers?

#2

Post by muzani » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 9:30 AM UTC

Product, Development, Sales are the three necessary cores to a product. That said, it's more a UX/UI role than development.

Re: Ask HN: How much product knowledge is necessary for developers?

#3

Post by giantg2 » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 3:14 PM UTC

Depends on the company. My company in the financial sector is always saying you need more financial acumen. I think it's mostly because out business people have no idea how to create a business process map or describe what they are doing.

Re: Ask HN: How much product knowledge is necessary for developers?

#4

Post by k00b » Wed, Jul 22, 2020, 7:03 PM UTC

Very context dependent.

If you're at a small startup, you'll want a lot.

When you're at a larger company, things typically get specialized, there will be dedicated product folks, and you'll find programmers with 0 product knowledge.

Re: Ask HN: How much product knowledge is necessary for developers?

#5

Post by afarrell » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 1:36 AM UTC

It also depends on the person. I was a kid named Andrew who read Enders Game and the sequels growing up. I then went to an engineering university that emphasized “engineers have a duty to society and must understand the impact of their work” in multiple classes. So for me, the answer is “a fair amount”.

Re: Ask HN: How much product knowledge is necessary for developers?

#6

Post by maps7 » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 11:15 AM UTC

It really depends on the component under development but what I find is that devs that know the product can contribute to team discussions and planning far better than ones that don't.

Re: Ask HN: How much product knowledge is necessary for developers?

#7

Post by mierz00 » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 3:55 PM UTC

It’s extremely important.

I’m currently in a position where I don’t have an in-depth understanding of the product and I can feel it when it comes to brainstorming.

As our product is a B2B where our users are sysadmins I have no contact with clients or use of the product. I think it makes it much more difficult to understand what is needed.

Where I see some of my client facing colleagues are on the forefront of understanding what needs to be improved.