David and Thomas discuss the relationship between product and engineering, importance of communication, and the role of company core values.
Show Notes
Featuring Thomas Wadsworth, Co-Founder of TvPass and former Director of Product Management and User Experience at Disney
Talking Points:
- What is the special relationship between Product and Engineering?
- Important conversations to have between Product and Engineering at the beginning of a project.
- What is it like to work with engineering teams across the world?
- How was Thomas’ experience working with engineering teams at Disney?
- What is a POD based system?
- Discover internal dynamics between Product, Engineering, and Design.
- Learn how teamwork and communication plays a role on big company teams.
- What should a junior engineer be aware of when working with Product?
- What does Thomas look for when working with developers?
- Communication best practices.
- Learn the importance of company values and how they effect all aspects of work-life.
- Apply different values to different companies.
Quotable Quotes:
- “Product and Engineering are like left and right shoes. You really do need both.” - DG
- “Product sets the vision for the product and help explain to the other teams why it is important.” - TW
- “Product is there to support engineering and design by helping remove questions and blockers from a clarity standpoint pertaining to the product.” - TW
- “It is up to Product to work with Engineering and Design to find a creative solution to a problem.” - TW
- “Whether it be a big company or a small company, communication is absolutely key.” - TW
- “It’s not just about how much you know your codebase, there are also a lot of soft skills that go a long way.” - TW
- ~“Understanding the companies values is extremely important.” - TW
- “Being able to understand little bits of product [ that pertains to the project that you are working on ] is important.” - TW
- “The more that you are talking to people in Product, the more you are talking to Designers just in a friendlier way, the more you will be able to internalize what they are trying to do and what their goals are.” - DG
- “It is not just what you say, it is when you say.” - DG
- “Show why you care, why you are invested [ in a company ] when things get tough. [ when aligning yourself with their values] ” - DG
- “Do not waste time applying to companies that do not run themselves in a way that aligns with your values.” - DG
- “If you don’t have any questions for me [ at the end of an interview ] then what the hell are you doing?” - TW
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