Product Management as we know today isn’t going to exist in 5 years

Click to expand the mind map for a detailed view.

Key Takeaways

Role Evolution: Product management will transform significantly in the next 5 years, merging with product engineering.
AI Impact: AI tools will enable rapid prototyping, reducing time spent on coding and design, allowing more focus on customer insights.
Customer Proximity: Teams will move closer to customers, reducing the gap between feedback and product development.
Technical PMs: Product managers will need to become more technical, understanding tools like SQL, databases, and modern architectures.
Founder Mode: Founders with strong instincts will benefit from AI-driven rapid prototyping to validate ideas quickly.
Go-to-Market Changes: Sales and customer success roles will evolve, focusing more on consultative selling and value realization.

Current Role: Focused on customer feedback, hypothesis generation, and creating specs.
Future Role: Will shift towards building functional prototypes and merging with product engineering.
AI Tools: AI will enable PMs to prototype faster, reducing the need for traditional coding and design cycles.

Rapid Prototyping: AI tools like Vercel, Replit, and Cursor allow PMs to turn specs into working prototypes quickly.
Customer Feedback: Engineers and PMs will spend more time directly with customers, iterating based on real-time feedback.
Design Evolution: Designers will focus on broader platform issues, creating reusable components for product engineers.

Product Engineers: Will take on more customer-facing roles, building prototypes and iterating based on feedback.
Technical PMs: Will oversee platform components, ensuring they work together seamlessly.
Designers: Will focus on system-level design, reducing cognitive load for end-users.

Sales: Will become more consultative, focusing on understanding customer pain points and building tailored solutions.
Customer Success: Will shift towards value realization, ensuring customers achieve their desired outcomes quickly.

AI Prototyping Tools: Vercel, Replit, Cursor, and tools like Shad CN for component libraries.
Databases: Postgres, Neon for backend data storage.
Frameworks: Next.js, Tailwind CSS for frontend development.

Fewer Roles: The convergence of PM and engineering roles will reduce the number of roles in organizations.
Platform Thinking: Teams will focus on building reusable components and systems that reduce cognitive load for users.

“Product management as we know it is going to be dead in 5 years.”
“AI is giving us the tools to separate losing ideas from winning ones faster than ever.”
“The role of the PM is to maximize the ROI of every engineering hour.”
“Founder mode works if the founder has strong instincts; otherwise, it’s a wild goose chase.”
“The future of product management is about building prototypes that customers can test drive.”
“Sales will evolve from order-taking to consultative problem-solving.”
“The company is the product; every function must align to deliver customer value.”
“AI tools are not just about building faster; they’re about building smarter.”
“Product engineers will spend a third of their time directly with customers.”
“The role of analytics is critical to understanding the ROI of what you’re building.”

Abhishek “Shake” Vasan: Former CPO at http://Apollo.io and Qualtrics, now a startup founder.
Host: Former manager of Shake, host of the Product Growth Podcast.

Mark Pincus: Founder of Zynga, known for his focus on ROI in product management.
Mike Davy: VP of Product, mentioned for his views on AI and feature factories.