DigitalVision/Getty Images
Why is it important for Product engineers to use their own product? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Answer by Danielle Kain, Engineer, on Quora:
Using your own product makes you a better engineer.
A good product engineer will know their way around the product's codebase. They'll know the features that they, or their team, own or touch inside and out. They may even know some adjacent features pretty well. They would know how to extend their feature's functionality, find and fix bugs, and help a new hire ramp up.
All of that being said, understanding how a product works from a code/codebase perspective is different from understanding a product as a user. Understanding the codebase allows an engineer to know where features are implemented. Understanding the product allows an engineer to know why features are implemented. Understanding both allows you to put together all the moving parts and get a more holistic view of the product. Seeing how changes affect the user experience become second nature because you are the user.
Using your product helps you recognize what's important to your users. A couple of weeks ago, I was adding some additional logging for answer adding on Quora. I was pretty nervous about this because adding an answer is an integral part of the Quora experience and I didn't want to cause any friction for the user. In my experience adding answers on Quora, the speed at which the answer is added is important to me — if the process of adding an answer takes too long, I, as a user, would be worried that something had gone wrong. Drawing on this experience, I realized that my data being logged a couple of seconds later would not really affect my results, but it taking longer for an answer submission would cause a noticeable difference. As a result, I moved my logging to occur after the answer was published.
Sometimes, as engineers, we can get caught up in making the best technical thing that we forget what the best product really means. For product engineers, best should be the best decision and experience for our user, not the coolest technical system. Sometimes features are just “extra” — extraneous things that clutter and complicate the user experience. Other times, new features can fundamentally and positively change the way that users are able to use your product.
Using your own product motivates you to be better at your job. When I'm browsing Quora, I see all these feature possibilities that are impossible to see just looking at the codebase. I also notice that some features don't have the visibility or ease that we, the engineers, thought that they would. This allows engineers to develop better product intuition and increased awareness of the wants and needs of users.
I'm motivated by making our product better for our users, but knowing that I'll also benefit from these features gives me an extra nudge/spark.
This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions: