FITC events. For digital creators. Save 10% off ANY FITC event with discount code 'slideshare' See our upcoming events at www.fitc.ca A Startup’s Secret Weapon: The Product Engineer with Alicia Liu OVERVIEW Startups often require employees to take on multiple roles, and one such combination is for an engineer to take on product management functions. In this talk, you will learn what a product engineer role looks like, why you should be a product engineer, and how to become one. I will discuss why product engineers are an invaluable asset to an early-stage startup, and how having product engineers result in better products and happier developers. This talk relates my experience over the last eight years in the trenches of early-stage startups, as a founder, and most recently as a product engineer at Coach.me. OBJECTIVE Learn how product engineers can benefit your organization, and how to become a product engineer. TARGET AUDIENCE Software engineers who work or want to work at a startup, founders, engineering managers. Five things audience members will learn What the product engineer role is Why this role is essential in a startup The benefits of having product engineers How to leverage product engineers in your organization Key skills to become a product engineer

1. A Startup’s
Secret Weapon:
The
Product
Engineer
Alicia Liu
@aliciatweet

2. Image by: theimpulsivebuy https://flic.kr/p/9vdtxz

3. Image by: James West https://flic.kr/p/9JCA5G

4. Image by: Last https://flic.kr/p/2a5odK

5. Image credit: Google Art Project
do not exist

6. Known
Problem Space
¯_(

7. South Park “Gnomes”

8. The path to a
successful
product is to
build

9. Product Engineer
Magic Power
Ship faster
Do more

10. Product
What to build?
Image by: Stefan Baudy https://flic.kr/p/wTgzo

11. Engineering
How to build it?
Image by: D. Laird https://flic.kr/p/agL3k8

12. Product Engineering

13. What? + How?
WHY?

14. Does not mean…
engineers have
all the answers

15. product

16.
engineering
executives
design
marketing
support

17. Magic Power #2
Higher Motivation

19. Essential Ingredients
Autonomy + Purpose

20. Hire good people and
leave them alone.
— William L. McKnight
“

21. nap all day?
rewrite everything in Perl?
What if they…
fail?

22. question my authority?
What if they…
good.

23. http://dilbert.com/strip/2011-08-16

24. engineering

28. design

32. marketing

36. sales

37.
product

38. management

42. support

45. finance

46.
etc!

47. Make Responsibilities
Explicit

48. Constraints
can

49. be

50. good!

51. Things that
matter
Things that
don't matter
Things to do
Don't matter
Matter

52. http://a16z.com/2014/07/30/the-happy-demise-of-the-10x-engineer/

54. Key Skill #1
Experienced

55. T-shaped

56. Key Skill #2
Pragmatic

57. There are two kinds of startups: the
ones that achieve some modest
traction on top of a pile of code of
which they are vaguely ashamed...
and the ones that go out of business.
That's it. No third kind.
— Dan Milstein
“

58. Key Skill #3
Responsible

59. Product
Engineer

60. Thank you!
Questions?
Find me at WebUnleashed
or @aliciatweet