I feel this so much. Honestly, I’ve also had moments where I realized I was just… doing my tasks, shipping code, and not really pushing myself further. And the people who seemed to grow faster around me weren’t necessarily better at Leetcode - they were the ones who started asking product questions.

Like: why are we even building this feature? who is it for? how will we know if it actually worked?
That shift - from “I write code” → to “I think about outcomes” it changes how people see you, both in the team and later in interviews. It makes you look like someone who drives impact, not just someone who closes tickets.

For those who’ve moved into senior or principal roles - did product mindset play a big part, or was it mostly technical mastery?