Personally, I wouldn't hire an engineer who wasn't preaching about products. I've seen too many companies tank (or nearly tank) as a result of technology-focused engineers. You aren't taking up my head-count for the sake of learning about new technologies and cool ways to code. You are on my team because you share the vision of making users' lives better, and that is done through the product offering.

So true. I think the overarching problem with that scenario is that the engineer is building the product for himself, and not for the team and end users. Rather than caring about what's best for the product, he/she thinks about his personal ego.

Carbonmade is an anomaly.

We're three designers, one project manager, one CEO, one customer service guy and only two developers.

That's only two developers out of eight people.

That's an interesting insight. In New York, there seems to be an increasing trend that values both product (design) and engineering.

I see that too. I keep hearing time and again from investors like Fred Wilson and Chris Dixon that amid the difficulty of attracting and retaining good talent, the "unicorn" is the killer product person.

I'm going to have to steal that phrase!