PM function is 💀. Change my mind.
Had a chat with a senior PM today on the need of the PM function with Ai getting smarter.
Engineers build, designers design, data people analyse things, and a business person has the mind to make money by leveraging the team. When a point arrives where Ai does all the IC part of Engineering, Design and Data, there won't be a requirement of PM function at all!
Creativity, Empathy, Product thinking, all these skills will be owned by Engineers, Designers, Data and Business leaders. These skills like "product sense" are something that won't hold the fort much longer because eventually all good engineers, designers and data people will have to develop the customer empathy and product sense to prompt the Ai and do their individual job better.
IMHO it is a high time that all PMs work to strengthen at least one hard skill to keep themselves employable.
While I am writing this post, unfortunately I am also the one who is seeking a PM role right now.
Any suggestions or thoughts you have on which hard skill to master and how to remain employable?
Bhasad management….no AI can do. Most toughest thing in the world today is people….all the problem start with people and PM manages people and their work in smartest way.
I have seen engineers, designers and business people tell otherwise. Product role is needed because other people don't have the time and knowledge to do the bhasad. Once Ai comes into the picture, people management will happen by itself from the senior engineering members of the teams.
This!
I think it will be the other way around, engineering, designing, analytics will be done by AI and you’ll need a product guy to make sure it aligns with the business and customers. So engineering, designing and analytics function is in danger. When AI is doing all the IC, why you’ll need engineers, designand data, you just need a generalist guy to compile all of that IC work, which is exactly what a PM does. So everyone will be a PM in future.
Your answer is screaming of inexperience. Who do you think will be the best person to guide an AI on how to code? An engineer! Best person to take control of the design AI - someone who knows design! See...no PM in the picture. PMs don't know enough to control / guide AI setups to contribute to IC roles.
An engineer who’ll do engineering + design + analytics = Product Manager
Same for a designer, for a data guy and for a PM as well.
There will be just few people here and there to do the grunt work in between.
I always thought that Engineers should do creativity, product thinking, empathy etc and then have always met some engineers who can't do anything in those aspects.
PM function is here to stay as long as there are humans involved in design, development, business etc.
IMHO Engineers who can't do creativity, product thinking, or empathy won't survive much longer. Their base skill of coding will be done by Ai. Their work will be to prompt the AI with the right words and right set of customer needs in mind.
That's true as well
I think learning design and data both can help you remain in the game for long i,e SQL+ Excel+tableau/power Bi+ ux principles with figma + analytics ( GA4/amplitude/mix panel)
I'm also looking for entry level product roles being a 2024 graduate Add on - getting familiar with AI tools will also help a lot
