The Next Release

Last year at a tech meetup, someone looked me straight in the eye and declared: "𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗱!" The conversation went something like this: Him: What do you do? Me: 𝘐'𝘮 𝘢 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘳. Him: Oh, really? I heard product management is dead! Engineers can handle it. We don't have a PM on our team, no PM, no PO, no Project Manager. Just us devs. Me: 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬! 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘺 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘥𝘮𝘢𝘱? Him: We tried to work it out together initially, but recently only one of the guys usually takes the lead on that. Me: 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴? Him: The same person works that out too, but honestly, it's tough. Me: 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘵! 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 ...

Lately, I’ve seen more and more Product Managers diving headfirst into Vibe coding, spending most of their time learning and using low-code or no-code tools, developing, and deploying their “production-ready” builds. At the same time, some mid to large-sized companies are cutting engineering or design roles and expecting PMs (assuming with the help of AI-enabled tools) to do it all, going from requirements to release, solo. This might work in a startup or simple products, but it rarely scales well in complex or mature products. At least not yet. To my fellow PMs rushing to learn Vibe coding as their primary goal: Exploring tools can spark creativity and speed up prototyping, and all good with that! Let’s only remember, as Product Managers, your core mission is to define the 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆, prioritise the 𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗺𝗮𝗽, and work closely with customers to build the right 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 thing. Tools and tech stacks are there to support that mission, not replace it. 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 on what...