[thunkshift1]

I think this take is rather disingenuous, especially the tech vs non-tech comparison you mentioned. Most, if not all, of the market winning products have come from tech founders/engineers. So tech people actually do know things better about what customers want. Its when the product has gained traction and it goes beyond a certain inflection point that these non tech pm types swoon in. They hype up tropes about tech folks lacking people skills or not knowing how to deal with customers. This is ultimately self serving for them because then they get to sit in the very lucrative position between the customers and a growing product, without actually doing any of the hard work involved in getting the product tech stack up and running and fine tuned.

[kerblang]

I'm not saying engineers can't do the job; many engineers certainly are capable of working as product owners, and in most cases startup founders are their own product owners, regardless of ability (for better/worse, but usually for better if they're succeeding).

Rather, the point is that it's an extraordinarily critical function and not something to assume everyone is just good at because they say so or because they're "smart" in some sense.

[thunkshift1]

Its not so much about smartness, its about knowing what is the right move to make. That some one who isnt familiar with the product internals or the market knows better than the founders/engineers because of some innate ability is a bit far fetched