Why I picked a Product Team Over an Infra Team
Pros of working in a product team over an infrastructure team
In my career, I've had the opportunity to work on both product teams and infrastructure teams. Each has its unique advantages and challenges. In this article, I'll highlight some of the benefits of working on a product team, particularly in relation to developing certain skill sets that can flourish more quickly in this environment.
Background
For context, I spent the first four years of my career in infrastructure teams at SAP and Salesforce. Currently, I've been part of a product team at Meta for the past three years.
Advantages of Working on a Product Team
1. Tangible Impact
Direct User Feedback: You'll have a clearer understanding of how your work impacts end-users.
Measurable Results: The success of your work can often be directly measured by user engagement and satisfaction. There are often metrics which you can use to measure your success and failures.
2. Innovation
Creativity and Experimentation: Building new products or improving existing ones requires a high degree of innovation and creative problem-solving.
Cutting-Edge Solutions: You'll often be at the forefront of technological advancements and market trends.
3. Collaborative Environment
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Product teams require close collaboration with designers, engineers, project managers, content designers, legal teams, marketing, and others to bring a product to market.
Diverse Perspectives: This collaboration brings together a variety of viewpoints and expertise, leading to more robust and user-friendly products.
4. Rapid Iteration
Quick Delivery: Product teams are responsible for delivering products quickly and iterating on them rapidly based on user feedback.
Agile Approach: They generally move fast, adopting agile methodologies to continuously improve the product.
5. Focus on Business Objectives
Goal-Oriented: Product teams typically work towards specific business objectives, such as revenue growth, customer acquisition, or social impact.
Strategic Alignment: Your work is closely aligned with the company's broader strategic goals.
Why I Transitioned to a Product Team
After three years in infrastructure roles, I felt a strong pull towards product work. If you resonate with any of the following points, a product team might be the right fit for you:
You want to know how many users are engaging with the product daily.
You are curious about how marketing efforts impact product growth.
You are interested in understanding user behavior and its implications on the product.
You thrive in fast-paced environments.
You enjoy experimenting to find the optimal path forward.
I think I developed more technical skills when I was working with an infra team
But I learned skills like collaboration, project management, influencing product decisions, strategizing product roadmaps which I never got an opportunity before.
That’s true. It gets worse whenever there is a new release but overall I think the oncall experience has not been bad
+1 to all your points. To complete the picture I am adding some cons. Working in product team potentially have dark sides of burnout and leadership’s pressure of pleasing customers. Of course Crazy on-calls.
Not every product team is crazy but frnds we are living in the world where every product needs scale 😀 and everything needs up 24/7.
My advice to work in product team is to check your daily responsibilities for home and family and then choose.