In my experience there are two types of engineers: ones who care more about the code (code-first) and ones who care more about the product (product-first).
I strongly favor hiring and working with product-first engineers.
As long as the company doesn't treat engineers like code monkeys, sure.
It is awful being an engineer who cares about the product but being part of an organization where engineers are never involved in product conversations.
I'd argue that you need some of each - if your team if over-filled with product-focused engineers, not everyone is going to feel heard, which can tank morale. And/or you'll be having to build consensus with everyone before the first line of code gets written.
You do want a team who can kick ideas around and do what is right, but you also sometimes want the people who just sling code and love doing so, as they will keep the quality of the code itself high.
Yeah I think a balance is good. The point I'm making in the post though is that ultimately you ship the product not the code and I always want to work with folks who get that.
In my experience there are two types of engineers: ones who care more about the code (code-first) and ones who care more about the product (product-first).
I strongly favor hiring and working with product-first engineers.
Curious what you think.