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Ask HN: How much product knowledge is necessary for developers?
- muzani 6y agoProduct, Development, Sales are the three necessary cores to a product. That said, it's more a UX/UI role than development.
- giantg2 6y agoDepends 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.
- k00b 6y agoVery 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.
- afarrell 6y agoIt 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”.
- maps7 6y agoIt 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.
- mierz00 6y agoIt’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.