<p>Are you just executing tickets, or are you driving business impact?</p><p>In this episode, Praveen Murugesan (VP of Engineering at Samsara) breaks down why the best engineers don&#39;t just write code and why &quot;coding skills&quot; alone won&#39;t get you there.</p><p>He explains the critical shift from &quot;software engineer&quot; to &quot;product engineer,&quot; why you shouldn&#39;t wait for permission to solve problems, and how to de-risk high-stakes projects like a true owner.</p><p><br></p><p>In this episode, we cover:</p><p>The difference between a &quot;Ticket Taker&quot; and a Product Engineer </p><p>Why Product Managers should NOT be doing project management </p><p>How to grow to Staff Engineer without managing a large team </p><p>The exact interview questions to ask to test a company’s culture </p><p>A real story of an engineer telling a VP: &quot;That&#39;s not an important problem&quot;</p><p><br></p><p>Connect with Praveen Murugesan:</p><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveenmurugesan" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveenmurugesan</a></p><p><br></p><p>Timestamps: </p><p>00:00:00 - Intro </p><p>00:01:55 - Product Engineer vs. Software Engineer: What’s the Difference? </p><p>00:06:20 - Why Product Managers Should Not Do Project Management </p><p>00:11:06 - The Danger of &quot;Flying Blind&quot; Without Business Context </p><p>00:15:24 - Why Curiosity Is the Ultimate Leverage in the AI Era </p><p>00:25:06 - Why the Best Ideas Must Win Regardless of Hierarchy </p><p>00:27:43 - The #1 Interview Question to Test for Engineering Ownership </p><p>00:32:12 - How to Test a Company’s Culture Before You Join </p><p>00:36:04 - Why You Don&#39;t Need to Be Senior to Be a Product Engineer </p><p>00:40:46 - Managing High-Stakes Projects and De-risking Failure </p><p>00:43:56 - What I Learned From Breaking Production at Salesforce </p><p>00:48:29 - The Myth About Staff Engineering and Managing Teams </p><p>00:51:59 - The Engineer Who Told the VP: &quot;That&#39;s Not an Important Problem&quot;</p><p><br></p><p>#SoftwareEngineering #StaffEngineer #CareerGrowth</p>