What a Mid-level } should know

Independently defines API documentation requirements for developers. Reviews OpenAPI specifications for endpoint, error and example completeness. Defines developer experience standards for public APIs.

Reviews REST API design for product requirements compliance and industry best practices. Evaluates naming conventions, pagination, filtering, error handling. Defines API versioning strategy for backward compatibility.

Independently plans team capacity for a quarter considering technical debt and on-call rotation. Accounts for infrastructure capacity when planning load-heavy features. Works with system performance data.

Understands microservice decomposition trade-offs for product decisions. Evaluates architecture impact on delivery speed, team independence and operational complexity. Participates in domain modeling sessions with engineers.

Understands system design patterns and their impact on product capabilities. Evaluates trade-offs: consistency vs availability, latency vs throughput. Participates in architecture reviews with informed product perspective.

Independently evaluates and prioritizes technical debt. Calculates cost of delay for tech debt items. Balances tech debt payoff with feature delivery in sprint planning. Maintains tech debt register with business justification.

Independently defines SLIs and SLOs for their product jointly with engineering. Understands error budget concept and its impact on feature velocity vs reliability trade-off. Participates in SLO review and incident analysis.

Reviews pull requests focusing on product requirements compliance and API contracts. Understands change impact on user experience and performance. Checks for feature flags and A/B test configurations.

Independently designs A/B tests with sample size calculation and statistical significance. Considers technical dependencies when splitting traffic — caching, CDN, server-side rendering. Works with Optimizely, LaunchDarkly or similar tools.

Independently manages product backlog, balancing feature work and technical debt. Applies WSJF or RICE for prioritization considering technical complexity. Decomposes epics into stories with technical dependencies.

Independently designs and analyzes conversion funnels considering technical bottlenecks. Links drop-off points with technical metrics — latency, error rates, timeout issues. Builds segmented funnels.

Independently plans GTM for technical features and API releases. Coordinates technical readiness with marketing launch: documentation, SDK, sandbox environment. Defines early adopter program for developer-facing products.

Independently designs and conducts hypothesis-driven experiments. Defines success criteria with technical metrics (latency, error rate). Analyzes results considering confounding factors and technical artifacts.

Independently conducts JTBD research for technical users: developers, DevOps, architects. Formulates job maps with functional, emotional and social dimensions. Identifies unmet needs in developer experience.

Independently conducts competitive analysis with technical depth: API capabilities, architecture patterns, pricing models. Analyzes developer community trends through GitHub stars, Stack Overflow, developer surveys.

Independently formulates OKRs considering technical and product goals. Links engineering KPIs (DORA metrics, SLO compliance) with product outcomes. Maintains regular tracking and reporting on key metrics.

Independently designs event tracking schema considering data architecture. Configures custom reports and cohort analysis. Understands technical aspects: data sampling, event batching, SDK performance impact.

Independently creates product roadmap, balancing feature delivery with technical initiatives. Includes infrastructure work, tech debt payoff and platform improvements. Communicates roadmap to different audiences with appropriate level of detail.

Formulates product vision considering technical enablers and constraints. Understands how emerging technologies (AI, cloud-native, edge) can transform the product. Creates compelling vision for technology and business stakeholders.

Independently manages expectations of 5-10 stakeholders. Adapts communication: deep technical for engineering, business impact for executives. Proactively manages priority conflicts between product and engineering.

Independently conducts user research for a technical product. Conducts developer interviews focused on DX (developer experience). Analyzes quantitative data from analytics and qualitative feedback from support channels.

Independently facilitates user story mapping sessions with product and engineering. Defines walking skeleton considering architecture constraints. Prioritizes releases through horizontal slicing with technical trade-offs.

Independently analyzes delivery metrics to identify bottlenecks in the product flow. Builds dashboards with DORA metrics, links engineering metrics to product outcomes. Uses data to improve planning.

Independently manages dependencies between 2-3 teams. Builds dependency graphs for features with technical components. Proactively communicates risks and blockers, maintains dependency board in Jira or similar tools.

Independently facilitates estimation sessions considering technical complexity. Applies reference-based estimation and three-point estimation. Analyzes past estimate accuracy for calibration and factors technical debt into estimates.

Independently configures Kanban system for the team with WIP limits and service classes. Analyzes flow metrics: cycle time, throughput, aging. Optimizes flow considering technical dependencies and code review bottlenecks.

Independently analyzes delivery pipeline processes. Applies value stream mapping to identify waste in the development cycle. Implements targeted improvements with measurable results — cycle time, quality metrics.

Independently plans releases for the product considering technical readiness criteria. Coordinates release scope with engineering: feature freeze, code complete, QA sign-off. Manages release notes and changelog for different audiences.

Independently conducts risk assessment for product initiatives with technical depth. Evaluates technical risks: scalability, security, data integrity. Defines mitigation strategies and contingency plans for each risk.

Performs the Product Owner role with technical focus. Manages sprint backlog balancing feature and tech debt work. Facilitates refinement with deep technical discussions. Defines Definition of Done with technical criteria.

Independently initiates ADR creation for key product decisions with technical justification. Reviews architectural documentation for product requirements compliance. Maintains an up-to-date registry of technical decisions.

Creates technical diagrams for product specifications: sequence diagrams for API interactions, data flow diagrams, state machines. Uses C4 model for documenting architecture at different levels.