This is certainly not the case at Intercom, where you feel extremely in control of your work. Without the external pressure, contractual agreements regarding time and price, engineers are sometimes freer to spend time figuring out the best way to do things and the best direction for the product. The feeling of sacrificing quality for expediency is rare, if any buy email list This doesn't mean that there are no more compromises in the Fast-Cheap-Good triangle, but the tension between the different sides of the triangle is very different - most of the time the balance is between fast shipping product and technological indebtedness.
There are of course tensions and pressures, but the feeling of sacrificing quality for opportunity is rare, if any. Another thing that makes being a product engineer special is that you're not just an engineer anymore. You are now also a product person. It may sound like hyperbole, but it has real meaning and a definite impact on your work. Your main concern now should be to deliver a great product. You are not only responsible for building what the designers have proposed, you are responsible for using your engineering knowledge to inform the design.
With this voice in the development of a product, the engineer has much more leverage and latitude to make incremental improvements. Ownership buy email list leads to responsibility Ultimately, it's this sense of ownership that really sets product engineering apart from consulting work. In general, people will tend to care more about the things they feel like they own. For the engineer, being an owner can mean taking extra care to make sure something is done in the best possible way.