I see a lot of inexperienced product people who have done a lot of work to figure out the next best thing to do with their product to meet the needs of the business and customers - only to be deflected by limitations presented by the engineering team.

The engineering team are amazing collaborators who should be deeply involved in the product Ideation & scoping process.

They should not, however, be in a position to deflect or distract you from your carefully prioritized set of features & requirements.

Why?

Because many engineers & engineering teams have an inherent dichotomy.

On one hand, they are typically skeptical, conservative & reticent to make big, risky bets. Often with good reason.

On the other hand, they are magical wizards. Once challenged to make something difficult, they will typically ultimately figure out a way to make it happen.

This requires product managers to...

Have a healthy level of disregard for the constraints inherent in the technical details and focus on what the business and customers really need.
Come up with a roadmap that allows their engineering partners to chip away at the problem towards their original intended goal within the technical constraints (vs heading off in a different direction)
Have faith that their engineering partners can make it happen given enough time and support.
Inspire their engineering partners to rise to the occasion.