As a moderately senior consultant for small to mid-sized software companies, I discuss product plans even more than I do as an in-house developer. As an in-hous

As a moderately senior consultant for small to mid-sized software companies, I discuss product plans even more than I do as an in-house developer. As an in-house developer, I get salary, and that is heavily protected by law. But as a consultant, I want to actually get paid, and paid well. If I work on ill-conceived design put together by an incompetent product team or an inexperienced founder, I'm also much more likely to have to push hard to get paid for each milestone. So I only consult when it's clear that I can add strategic value and that my client really understands their market. Once I'm sure those conditions are met, I can help them on the technology side. When I ask my clients probing questions about their product plans, they generally seem quite happy that I care. And yes, I have advised some of them that PHP would have been a terrible choice for their technical requirements. A large part of the value a senior consultant brings is knowing how far out on the bleeding edge is wise for a given company, product and team. You want a good balance of development speed and a reasonably mature ecosystem.