Frontend as part of the engineering culture
I’ve been a software engineer for close to a decade now. I’ve worked at small startups and big organizations. I tend to be observant and try to soak in knowledge like a sponge. These are some thoughts around the state of the industry from my perspective. Mostly related to organizations / teams that have front facing products.
It’s no surprise that the face of the internet has undergone lots of changes. Apps feel more intuitive, design is a feature, speed is important. Users are treated as first class citizens. However, there are still lots of companies out there that, in my opinion, aren’t treating frontend engineering as a first class citizen which spawns issues that otherwise could be overcome.
I’ve seen 2 distinct type of trends between organizational leadership: Product and Engineering. Both have their strengths and both undeniably have their weaknesses.
The problem is usually neither are frontend-inclined. What I mean by that is the understanding of everything that goes into being a frontend engineer. From design systems to performance optimizations and accessibility, a lot of the time these things seem like an afterthought to get to a goal of delighting a user.
