Note – These are reflections from my experience building and scaling deep-tech startup as a founding engineer. Not all ideas are fully formed yet.

Talented engineers routinely build systems no one needs. They optimize irrelevant bottlenecks. They architect solutions to problems that don’t exist. Why? Because they can. This isn’t incompetence - it’s misaligned focus.

The Problem

Engineers get absorbed in technical challenges and lose sight of business value. You can ship perfect code that generates zero revenue. You can eliminate technical debt while the company burns cash on features users ignore.

At startups, this kills companies.

Product-First Engineering

Product-first engineers prioritize user problems over technical problems.

They ask: “What’s preventing adoption?” before “What’s the cleanest implementation?”

They still care about code quality and system design. But they tie every technical decision to user impact and business outcomes.

What This Looks Like

  • Thinking from the user’s perspective, not just the codebase.
  • Talking to customers, yes! Engineers should engage with users to understand their needs not offload this to product managers.
  • Monitoring user behavior with the shipped product, not just code metrics.
  • Building MVPs that validate assumptions.
  • Understanding that deep tech doesn’t mean purely technical solutions. It means solving complex problems that matter to users.

The Discipline

Great engineers can build anything. Product-first engineers know what not to build.

That’s the difference between expensive engineering and profitable engineering.