6 skills of great developers and 16 interview questions to help you find them

This week in Tech in Asia Jobs shares insights into how successful companies operate, hire, and more.

Photo credit: Matt Wildbore.

There are a lot of skills that distinguish a great developer from a good one. But when working on digital products, there are some that are much more important.

Inspired by this definition of a product designer, I’ve decided to talk about what I consider a product developer.

As is the case with designers, developers will have many different skill sets and, even more important, mindsets. To build successful product teams, you’ll need a particular type of developer—product developers.

Let’s see what skills are needed for these types of developers and why these set them apart.

Product developer characteristics

Customer-oriented

Above everything else, the most important characteristic for this role is being customer-centric. We want customer-centric product teams, and this should be true for any role in the team.

From a developer’s perspective, this means prizing customer satisfaction over code perfection. Of course, we want excellent code in our product. But if this will get in the way of satisfying the customer, it is not an option for this role.

This sort of developer enjoys knowing more about the customer. When they start a new task, they want to know why they are doing it and how it would affect the user. They enjoy receiving information from product managers or product designers on the latest user research and even participate in usability tests or interviews.

Business interest

Similar to customer centricity, these software engineers understand that we are here to make a profitable business. This interest can be seen when they have to do not-so-interesting or challenging parts of the product to support a business rule, for example.

I also evaluate how committed they are in solving urgent production errors that affect the business. If they find a bug and give excuses not to tackle it immediately, this may be a sign that they do not embrace this concept.

Similar to the first point, they are also interested in understanding the business. How do we make money? What are our results so far? They appreciate when the product manager shares metrics and insights on the business’s health.

How to interview for this role?

Conclusion