IndieRails Matt Swanson - The Product Engineer
Jul 8, 2025
Matt Swanson, CTO of Arrows and author of Boring Rails, shares his insights on product engineering and development strategies. He discusses the unique challenges faced by startup engineers balancing technical roles with business demands. Matt highlights the importance of AI in product engineering, emphasizing personal connections in decision-making. He also contrasts social media and blogging, revealing how they impact professional networking. His journey from bootstrapping to considering venture capital offers a fresh perspective on growth strategies.
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Engineers as Product Owners
- Arrows treats engineers as product engineers who own features end-to-end, including frontend, backend, and product thinking.
- This approach empowers engineers to improve user experience with small, impactful changes without waiting for formal approval.
Know If Indie Is For You
- If you resent doing sales, marketing, or support, indie entrepreneurship might not fit you.
- It's perfectly fine to work a job and enjoy coding without the burden of all startup roles.
LLMs Unlock New Features
- Large language models (LLMs) enable product features by converting unstructured data into structured data.
- This unlocks innovative solutions without building extensive custom adapters for numerous data sources.
