[todayispotato]

Not OP, but I do all those things at a company with 4 engineers. I have only met a couple (as in 2 or 3) engineers that I estimate would be capable of doing most of those things, but it's not impossible.

And regarding 3: both, of course. But he'll probably care more about users in day to day work, as those are more directly relevant to his goals (making a good product).

[ThalesX]

I don’t think it’s impossible either. I think most early stage startup people do a mix of everything there and it doesn’t have to stop early stage.

However, I do feel like actually being insightful and competent in so many domains of knowledge is a bit too much to ask of a single role.

I’m arguing that there should be separate roles, with different responsabilities, of people that are good in their specific domain and that the process of delivery should take care of mixing their outputs into something meaningful for the customer.

Putting my faith in this magic product engineer role that touches all aspects of the company, and expecting that person to really get good stuff constantly seems like a step in the wrong direction to me.

[nevertoolate]

I’d suggest you read the article through the “what if it is true” glasses and start asking questions on HOW you can get there. Thank you for being negative though, it helped me to be positive as I also started soul searching why I couldn’t become one of the great product engineers who tick all the boxes. We have to trust others and be positive, and self confident, not thinking about ticking boxes to prove things to others but with the desire to genuinely help.

[rpedela]

Product people, regardless of primary background, have to be competent in a variety of skills and experts at one or two to be extremely effective. The job simply requires it. It is possible to be an expert in engineering and be competent in business, design, etc. The blog post is simply describing an engineer who probably could be a product manager/owner if they had the desire.