Develop Yourself #256 - The Rise of the Product Minded Engineer
Jul 14, 2025
Matt Watson, who led VIN Solutions to a $150 million exit and now helps startups build effective engineering teams, shares insights on developing a product-minded approach. He highlights why many developers struggle to launch products and the growing role of AI in assessing coding quality. Emphasizing customer empathy, he explains how understanding real problems is key to success. He also discusses navigating business dynamics and the importance of industry knowledge for impactful SaaS development.
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Be Curious About Your Product
- Develop curiosity by asking why a feature is being built and who benefits from it. - Follow up after deployment to learn how customers react and improve accordingly.
Customer Feedback Motivates Engineers
- Engineering feels like an assembly line without customer feedback. - Getting feedback motivates engineers by showing real business impact.
On-call Experience Reveals User Pain
- Brian's early experience on call exposed him to direct user feedback. - Hearing users' frustrations gave him real insight into how software is actually used.
