Every product solves a problem — so to do product engineering you must deeply understand what the product is really about in the real world. It takes the highest level of curiosity, and the flexibility to figure out the answer even by going out of your way. That curiosity and understanding are the real prerequisites of success in product engineering.
You can't fake the laws that govern the work
You can't fake Newton's laws of motion. You either grasp why an object moves, or you don't. There is no wording clever enough to stand in for understanding. Software requirements deserve exactly the same rigor.
In the AI era the developer's job shifts. It is no longer mostly about writing code — the machine does that now. It is about thinking clearly enough that AI can write it correctly. The clarity is the work. The typing is downstream.
The new software development formula
Physics
F = m × a
Software
Code = Understanding × AI
What this means: don't be a problem solver first. First, become these —
Solving comes last. Understanding, observing and articulating the problem comes first — that is the real prerequisite of product engineering.
So make this the mindset you adopt before anything else on the way to becoming a product engineer. Read it first. Then read the rest.