SWE here with experience on product development through a few startups earlier in my life, working on larger orgs later. I wouldn't choose any other way. As a

SWE here with experience on product development through a few startups earlier in my life, working on larger orgs later. I wouldn't choose any other way. As a SWE I can have my opinions about the product, I can build a business case for what I see might be gaps in the offering and try to sell it but I'd still very much need the PO/PM to take the job of fleshing that out to users'/product's needs and defining the "what" better than I can. A well-oiled product team is invaluable, there's very few things I hate more in this career than working with an incompetent product manager, everyone else's lives become extremely difficult if a PM is not doing a good job.