Jean-Michel Lemieux, former CTO of Shopify and VP of Engineering at Atlassian, shares his perspective on how AI tools will change software engineering team sizes and global talent distribution.
“I think companies are going to unbloat and we're going to distribute programmers, right? Like there's, we've got a global, you know, lack of procreation happening. We're going to have less and less people who can build technology where we need it. Like we need more efficiencies in agriculture and healthcare and education and renewable energy. Like, I think we're going to distribute these programmers that we're Making tweets boost on Twitter and Facebook, and we're going to distribute them more because we are going to need less. But I tell you, I think the pie is going to grow in terms of the kinds of problems we can throw technologists to. And I think that's kind of what's going to happen.”
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More from Jean-Michel Lemieux
Insight
Lemieux: 'Hire great people and get out of the way' is flawed advice
“Hiring great people and get out of their way is like, is basically an, it is assuming that everyone is magically going to have the same understanding of the world, is magically going to have the same quality bar, is magically going to be aligned on how they do…”
Jean-Michel LemieuxMar 20, 2024▶ 26:51Jean-Michel Lemieux: Three Product Decisions Every Team Needs to Make | E1129 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Lemieux: Shopify prioritizes shipping on quality, while Atlassian prioritizes speed
“And I think the non-overlapping I saw the most from the inside was Shopify will ship on quality. Atlassian will ship on speed.”
Jean-Michel LemieuxMar 20, 2024▶ 7:32Jean-Michel Lemieux: Three Product Decisions Every Team Needs to Make | E1129 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Lemieux: Discussing initiatives months in advance kills company execution speed
“Often companies, the way that they lose time and get slow is not just about, like, what to do fast or slow, but they end up talking about too much stuff that won't happen for three or four months.”
Jean-Michel LemieuxMar 20, 2024▶ 13:50Jean-Michel Lemieux: Three Product Decisions Every Team Needs to Make | E1129 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Lemieux: Shipping software reduces risk far more than planning
“We've all been, I think, indoctrinated into planning reduces risk, and I think shipping reduces risk. So as a company, your job is to reduce the most risk possible. And I just really believe shipping does that.”
Jean-Michel LemieuxMar 20, 2024▶ 20:51Jean-Michel Lemieux: Three Product Decisions Every Team Needs to Make | E1129 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
PredictionNot checkable as stated
Lemieux: A company building a country OS will become the world's richest
“If someone could come up with a country operating system is probably the next biggest like planet will be the richest company on the planet”
Jean-Michel LemieuxMar 20, 2024▶ 54:23Jean-Michel Lemieux: Three Product Decisions Every Team Needs to Make | E1129 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Lemieux: Choose a career based on strength rather than passion
“You know, like people always say, do something you love. And I'm like, maybe I've heard this. I'm like, do something you're good at, you know? So You know, in some ways my guidance counselor was like, hey, it looks like you're good at it. There's kind of no wr…”
Jean-Michel LemieuxMar 20, 2024▶ 3:10Jean-Michel Lemieux: Three Product Decisions Every Team Needs to Make | E1129 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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