A curated list of articles, books, tools and newsletters for the aspiring Product Engineer.
Product Engineers bridge the craft of software development with product thinking and user engagement. They take end-to-end ownership of features, balancing technical decisions with customer needs to deliver impactful, high-quality user experiences.
Some of the best introductory articles on the role of the Product Engineer on the web.
- What is a Product Engineer? - Understand what a Product Engineer is, what makes this role unique.
- Product Engineer vs. Product Manager - Helps sharpen the distinction between those two related roles.
- Product Engineer vs. Software Engineer - Points out some important differences to the more traditional software engineer.
- The Product-Minded Engineer - A slightly shorter rundown of the responsibilities of a Product Engineer.
- How To Become a Product Engineer - A practical guide on the workflows and responsibilities of the Product Engineer.
- The Product Engineer Checklist - An extensive list of questions to consider for the aspiring Product Engineer.
- Product Engineer Manifesto - A concise description of the Product Engineering role, similar to the Agile manifesto.
- How To Build a Product Engineering Culture - A best-practice guide on common product engineering processes.
A list of books that should help the aspiring Product Engineer get up to speed on topics like strategy, process and discovery.
- Good Strategy, Bad Strategy - A clear explanation of strategy, featuring many cases from the world of technology.
- Playing To Win - A playbook on creating winning strategies and how to guide everyday actions with larger strategic goals.
- Inspired - How to discover and deliver products that customers love.
- Empowered - Best practices and techniques for product management, product design and engineering.
- Transformed - How to bridge the gap between where most companies are right now and where they need to be.
- Escaping The Build Trap - Explains how to align product development with real business value.
- Shape Up - Describes Basecamp's approach to product development to reduce risk and overplanning.
- Continuous Discovery Habits - A practical guide to making continuous customer discovery a core habit.
- The Product-Minded Engineer - A book that bridges the gap between technical expertise and user empathy.
- The Mom Test - Teaches how to talk to customers and validate product ideas without getting biased or misleading feedback.
- User Story Mapping - Introduces story mapping as a technique to create a shared understanding of product scope.
Online courses and educational programs designed to help engineers develop product thinking and cross-functional skills.
- Advanced Course In Product Engineering - Helps engineers shift their mindset and transform themselves into Product Engineers.
- Complete Intro To Product Management - Teaches engineers all the necessary skills to become Product Managers.
- Product School - Offers a wide range of product-related courses with an emphasis on AI, led by industry experts.
An incomplete list of tools that can help Product Engineers speed up their daily work at each step of the SDLC.
- Ping Pong - Platform to recruit and schedule user research participants with built-in incentives and payments.
- Lyssna - Remote testing platform for quick feedback on designs, prototypes, and messaging.
- Maze - Continuous Product Discovery platform for unmoderated testing and actionable insights.
- useberry - Prototype testing tool to validate UX flows with real users before starting development.
- UserVoice - Product Discovery tool to collect user feedback, identify opportunities and engage customers.
- Intercom - Customer communication platform with chat, help desk, and onboarding automation.
- Userflow - No-code builder for in-app onboarding, checklists, and product tours.
- Userpilot - In-app experience platform to guide users and drive adoption.
- Tally - Simple, flexible form builder to gather customer feedback with Notion-like editing.
- Typeform - Conversational form builder designed for engaging surveys and feedback forms.
- AppCues - Platform for In-app messaging, Behavioural email and Push notifications.
- FigJam - Figma's collaborative whiteboard for ideation, creating user flows and prototyping.
- Moqups - Lightweight, lower-level wireframing and diagramming tool in the browser.
- Mockflow - Wireframing and UI planning tool with prebuilt component libraries for quick iterations.
- Justinmind - Advanced prototyping tool for creating interactive web and mobile experiences rapidly.
- Proto.io - Tool to create fully interactive and engaging prototypes without coding.
- v0 - AI-powered tool for generating front-end code and UI components based on prompts.
- loveable - Collaborative AI pair-programmer for shipping MVPs faster.
- Bolt - AI-driven platform to scaffold and ship full-stack applications quickly.
- Base44 - AI app builder that lets anyone turn ideas into working apps in minutes.
- Posthog - Open-source product analytics with built-in session recording and feature flags.
- Heap - Automatically captures every user interaction for retroactive analysis.
- Hotjar - Session recordings, heatmaps, and surveys to understand user behavior.
- LaunchDarkly - All-in-one platform for feature flags, experimentation and analytics.
Talks and interviews exploring the mindset behind great Product Engineering.
- "How to work better with Product, as an Engineer" with Ebi Atawodi - On how to get product and engineering to operate as one team.
- "Why become a Product Engineer?" on Y Combinator Root Access - Two YC founders on what it means to be a Product Engineer.
- "Decoding Product Engineering" by ePilot Tech - A discussion on the mindset shift from traditional Software Engineers to modern Product Engineers.
- "Matt Swanson - The Product Engineer" on IndieRails - Matt Swanson shares insights on product engineering, SaaS growth, AI tools, and publishing technical content.
- The Product Engineer Podcast - A place where Product Engineers talk about their strategies, tools and technologies.
Specialized newsletters on the topic of Product Engineering.
- Product for Engineers - A newsletter for early-stage startups that helps engineers build great products.
- Product Engineering - A Substack with deep dives into the technical levers behind products users love.
- Enginuity - Insights on cultivating a Product Engineering mindset and creating meaningful software.
- Product Compass - Actionable tips, zero-to-one resources, and step-by-step playbooks for product builders.
- The Pragmatic Engineer - A newsletter for software engineers and engineering managers, occasionally touching on product topics.
A list of companies that employ or hire Product Engineers.
- Posthog - Tools for product engineers to build successful products.
- ePilot - Cloud software to support the energy transition.
- Ghost - An app for publishers to create, share, and grow a business around their content.
- Incident - An AI platform for on-call, incident response, and status pages.
- Lingokids - An app for kids that turns learning into a fun experience.
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