Ask HN: How much product knowledge is necessary for developers? - arunkumarl
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giantg2
Depends on the company. My company in the financial sector is always saying
you need more financial acumen. I think it's mostly because out business
people have no idea how to create a business process map or describe what they
are doing.

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mierz00
It’s extremely important.

I’m currently in a position where I don’t have an in-depth understanding of
the product and I can feel it when it comes to brainstorming.

As our product is a B2B where our users are sysadmins I have no contact with
clients or use of the product. I think it makes it much more difficult to
understand what is needed.

Where I see some of my client facing colleagues are on the forefront of
understanding what needs to be improved.

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afarrell
It also depends on the person. I was a kid named Andrew who read Enders Game
and the sequels growing up. I then went to an engineering university that
emphasized “engineers have a duty to society and must understand the impact of
their work” in multiple classes. So for me, the answer is “a fair amount”.

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maps7
It really depends on the component under development but what I find is that
devs that know the product can contribute to team discussions and planning far
better than ones that don't.

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k00b
Very context dependent.

If you're at a small startup, you'll want a lot.

When you're at a larger company, things typically get specialized, there will
be dedicated product folks, and you'll find programmers with 0 product
knowledge.

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muzani
Product, Development, Sales are the three necessary cores to a product. That
said, it's more a UX/UI role than development.

