The idea of the “product focused engineer” I think, as a phrase, assumes that some engineers can think about product and some can’t. My hypothesis is that, for the most part, that’s not actually how the world works. Individuals have different interests and passions, and it's when you align the passion of the individual with the problem when you get the output that we all think of as the “product focused engineer.” Said another way - if the person is passionate about the business problem, and they’re empathetic with the user, they’re far more likely to spend time using the product as a user and find the bugs/opportunities to accelerate product quality.
The idea of the “product focused engineer” I think, as a phrase, assumes that some engineers can think about product and some can’t. My hypothesis is that, for the most part, that’s not actually how the world works. Individuals have different interests and passions, and it's when you align the passion of the individual with the problem when you get the output that we all think of as the “product focused engineer.” Said another way - if the person is passionate about the business problem, and they’re empathetic with the user, they’re far more likely to spend time using the product as a user and find the bugs/opportunities to accelerate product quality.