My Role as a Product Engineer at Esri
My Role at Esri as a Product Engineer
Whether you are collecting and editing data, performing geospatial analysis, or creating cartographic masterpieces, Esri software has a solution for you. But have you ever wondered how all those different products get built? Product engineers (PEs) are one small role within Esri’s system that help contribute to the development of the software. My name is Bekah Bollin and I am PE for the ArcGIS Online team giving you a sneak peek into my role and some of the important skills.
What is a product engineer?
So, what exactly is a product engineer (PE), and what does that position look like at Esri? The short answer is that it depends! Product engineering is a niche role that combines technical skills and GIS knowledge to help improve products. Generally, this includes helping test, design, and manage areas of Esri’s software. PEs can specialize in many different areas and the role can become more focused over time. Although there can be a lot of variation within the world of product engineering, it is all centered around creating the best software for Esri customers.
A typical day for a product engineer can vary greatly, but you can usually count on some testing or troubleshooting. The beginning of a software release cycle can include more meetings and design conversations, whereas closer to the release date involves more testing and documentation. Product engineers can also contribute public facing content, such as informational blogs or conference presentations.
Important skills & experiences for a product engineer
Although I didn’t train in school to become a product engineer, I had a lot of professional experiences that helped prepare me for the role. Some of the key skills that help me support Esri’s software are below:
Troubleshooting
As any GIS tech worth their salt will tell you, GIS is all about troubleshooting. Whether I was scouring through Esri documentation or seeking out alternative ways to complete a task, I had plenty of practice solving problems I encountered. As a product engineer, I still find myself troubleshooting different software bugs or thinking critically about issues so that ESRI customers have the best experience possible.
Familiarizing myself with Esri software
Before working at Esri, I was already familiar with many of Esri’s products. This allowed me to become comfortable with common GIS workflows and understand pain points that might exist within the software. Now as a PE, I leverage this perspective as a user to help guide the design and implementation of new projects to best benefit the customer. Having this background has also influenced how I test our products and come up with demos applicable to real life scenarios.
To learn more about Esri software, check out ESRI academy or tutorials from Learn ArcGIS
Explaining core GIS concepts
Although Geographic Information Systems has been gaining a lot of traction in the last few years, I still have people ask me “What’s GIS?” all the time. A crucial part of GIS is being able to explain your work to others who have little to no understanding of what it is. This has been extremely helpful in my current role where I may have to explain different geographic concepts to designers or developers. I often think of PEs as translators: Geographic concepts go in, software comes out.
For tips on how to explaining GIS to non-geographers, read this helpful blog
What is the best part about being a product engineer?
Personally, I think the best thing about being a product engineer is being about to directly impact the software. Since I have firsthand experience using Esri products, it is really rewarding to advocate for the GIS community’s perspective. It takes a lot of collaboration and work to build all Esri’s wonderful geospatial tools, and I love that I am a part of it!
Have more questions?
Now that you understand a bit more about the product engineering role, I would love to hear any other questions or comments you have in the comment section below. Also, if helping test, design, and develop GIS software sounds up your alley look at the Esri careers site. We are always looking for bright, passionate people to help make our products great 😊