"The engineers on my team just want to code. They don't want to have anything to do with product. They just want specs. What do I do?"
1/n Are you asking them do to X *and* do their "day job" as defined by their managers (and frankly your roadmap) ?
If so, start there...
2/n Do they have a reason to believe that doing X will in any way improve the quality of the product and make their lives easier? Have they ever seen X "work" ?
Show don't tell.
3/n Is there average day/week a quagmire of unnecessary meetings, wading through tech debt, struggling to get *anything* to work ... and jumping through process hoops to prove their worth?
If so...no they will not have bandwidth.
4/n How do incentives work on the engineering team? Maybe they want to help, but their "grade" is determined by something altogether different.
"I'd love to, but I am on the hook to deliver [some project] this quarter to make a good impression..."
Talk to eng management.
5/n Have they had any time to practice?
Or did they get thrown into the deep end the first time they were given a shot ... expected to brainstorm on demand, be as vocal as practiced PdMs and designers, and "participate" !
Make it safe to practice. Reasonable expectations.
