Engineering Influence in Tech Companies | Generated by AI
Question: In large companies, should engineers have more influence, and should PMs understand engineering deeply to avoid bad technical decisions?
Answer:
Yes, in strong technology companies, engineering usually has much more decision power than in traditional companies, but not because “coders are above business.” It is because many business decisions eventually become system design decisions, and bad technical decisions can create years of cost.
A good structure is usually:
Business / Users
|
v
Product strategy
|
v
Engineering design + implementation
|
v
System capability
|
v
Business outcomes
The mistake is treating engineering as only “people who write code.” In reality, engineers often understand:
- feasibility
- architecture trade-offs
- operational cost
- scalability
- security
- maintenance burden
- developer productivity
For example:
Bad decision:
Team A: build iOS app
Team B: build Android app
Team C: later build web app
Three codebases:
iOS Swift
Android Kotlin
Web React
Same business logic:
login
payment
user profile
notifications
duplicated 3 times.
A technically strong team might propose:
Flutter / React Native / Kotlin Multiplatform
|
v
shared business logic
|
-----------------
| | |
iOS Android Web
The decision is not “engineers want fancy technology.” It is a business decision:
- faster iteration
- lower cost
- fewer bugs
- smaller team
However, using cross-platform technology blindly is also a mistake. For example, a high-performance camera app, game engine, or deeply native UX may require native development.
The key is technical judgment.
A strong PM does not necessarily need to be a senior engineer, but a good PM in a technical company should understand:
- APIs
- databases
- distributed systems basics
- mobile/web architecture
- AI model capabilities
- engineering trade-offs
The best product leaders often have engineering backgrounds.
Examples:
- Kevin Scott has a computer science and engineering background.
- Linus Torvalds is an extreme example of engineering-driven product creation.
- Many successful founders are technical because they can directly connect user problems with implementation possibilities.
But there is another failure mode:
Engineer thinks:
"I built a technically beautiful system."
User thinks:
"I don't need this."
Business dies.
A technically excellent architecture with no market value is also waste.
The strongest companies combine:
Excellent product sense
+
Excellent engineering judgment
+
Fast execution
The ideal relationship:
PM:
“What problem should we solve? Why does it matter?”
Engineer:
“What is the best way to solve it? What are the trade-offs?”
Both sides influence each other.
Large companies often become inefficient when:
Business says:
"Just build this."
Engineering says:
"We don't know why, but okay."
or:
Engineering says:
"We will build the perfect system."
Business says:
"Nobody wants this."
High-performing companies avoid both extremes.
A mature technology company usually gives engineers technical authority and PMs product authority. Neither side dominates; decisions are made by the people with the deepest understanding of that dimension.