As engineers become more efficient, product managers are now managing a much larger number of products. This means that companies are looking to hire even more of them. At the same time, businesses are now involving engineers themselves in product management, giving rise to a new role called the “product engineer.”
As engineers become more efficient, product managers are now managing a much larger number of products. This means that companies are looking to hire even more of them. At the same time, businesses are now involving engineers themselves in product management, giving rise to a new role called the “product engineer.”
Silicon Valley has long debated the value of product managers — people whose job is to synchronize the work of engineers, sales departments and other teams to create products that users need, writes Business Insider.
However, now that AI and “vibecoding” have given engineers a powerful boost, allowing them to create more and faster than ever, the workload on product managers has grown to record levels.
Companies will either have to hire more of these professionals or invent something completely new, Anthropic's head of development Amol Avasare said in the latest episode of "Lenny's Podcast."
According to Avasare, it is engineers who benefit the most from AI tools like Claude Code, which can increase their productivity by at least two to three times.
At the same time, the size of the teams remains the same. This means that product managers and designers are now forced to support the volume of work that was previously handled by much larger engineering teams. This shift in emphasis creates significant pressure on their positions. “Product management and design are under severe pressure,” Avasare noted.
Avasare, who previously worked as a product manager at MasterClass, said Anthropic is actively hiring new managers to fill the gap. However, at larger companies, especially those building complex technical products, he believes engineers will be able to combine their core responsibilities with the role of product manager.
Anthropic is already testing this approach internally.
Avasare noted that if a project requires two weeks of engineering time or less, “the engineer is fully responsible for effectively being the product manager for it.” He said such professionals would also be responsible for interacting with the legal department and communicating with cross-functional stakeholders.
“I expect that this is the approach that more and more companies will start to implement - they will simply delegate the authority of ‘mini-products’ to engineers,” he added.
