Product management is splitting: hands-on builders with judgment thrive, while information movers face shedding and obsolescence.
The information mover becomes a dinosaurNikhil estimates about half of product people grew up with that superpower, and builders are the ones being hired now.
Shed 30,000, rehire 8,000 AI-first peopleHe predicts massive shedding then massive rehiring within 12 to 24 months, with the new hires all AI first.
Joy is the biggest antidote to burnoutPeople cross from fear to joy at their first personal win with the tools, and then they are hooked.
Executive SummaryAI
Nikhil Singhal tells Lenny that the product leader's day three years ago was largely moving information from one person to another, responsibility without authority, which he calls the greatest form of workplace stress.
He now calls it a complete renaissance for the product industry: the strongest builders have compensation at an all-time high, more offers than they have ever seen, and a path to founder or C-level roles, but the industry is more tired than he has ever seen it.
His prediction is that in the next 12 to 24 months companies will do massive shedding of staff and then massive rehiring, with a company shedding 30,000 and hiring 8,000 people who are all AI first.
Lenny's new job market report found the most open PM roles globally at tech companies in three plus years, the highest since COVID, because everyone now wants builders rather than information movers.
His main advice is courage to cross the mental threshold into reinvention, find the first moment of joy with the new tools, increase pace, swallow your ego, and stay focused on the skip job rather than the next one.
Key Quote
“Now what we're essentially saying is the information mover is essentially going to become a dinosaur.”
— Nikhil Singhal
Key Quote
“I think those product managers, everybody wants a builder.”
— Nikhil Singhal
Key Quote
“I am going to equally disappoint everyone, not disappoint one group.”