Title: The Architect Role | Silicon Valley Product Group
Headings: The Architect Role
The Architect Role
Participating in Product Discovery
The Architect Role in Product Development

Content: Sometimes this happens because the product manager believes it’s his job to define the product, and it’s engineering’s job to build it. Sometimes this happens because engineering is so busy building that they can’t free up any resources to participate earlier. There are really two main reasons you need strong representation and active participation by the engineering organization during the product discovery process: – First, the engineers and architects know best what is possible. They can help identify new solutions to user’s problems. They can contribute ideas, evaluate ideas, and improve on ideas. They are an absolutely essential ingredient to the product discovery process. – Second, the engineers and architects can evaluate the cost and complexity of the different ideas and features. They can review prototypes, and help flesh out what is involved with each idea. It is essential that these time and cost estimates are provided early, during the discovery process, as this is key information for the product manager to decide whether or not a feature or capability is worth including in the resulting product definition.