Working with engineering

Effective collaboration with engineers requires understanding their concerns about technical debt, code quality, and system architecture.

Here are key strategies for working effectively with engineers:

• Include engineers early rather than presenting finished plans. Their technical insights can reveal challenges and opportunities you might have missed. When engineers understand why a feature matters, they can make smarter technical choices.
• Keep your engineers invested in what they’re building. Make sure they understand how their work impacts users. Share insights from research and feedback from users with them, and encourage them to take part in user interviews from time to time.
• Avoid solving all their problems. It's easy to fall into patterns where you fix everything for the engineering team. Instead, build balanced relationships by asking questions that help them work through problems on their own.
• Recognize different working styles. Some engineers want to join every product discussion, while others prefer focused coding time with minimal interruptions. Adapt your approach to these individual preferences.
• Create leadership opportunities for engineers. Whether designating someone as a project owner or encouraging them to present to stakeholders, these opportunities help them grow professionally while freeing you to focus on strategic work.[1]