Williamson: AI will merge PM, design, and engineering into a single role
Scott Williamson · Scott Williamson: Hiring the Best Product People in Five Steps, Why the Best PMs are Writers | E1118 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Feb 21, 2024 · at 57:17
Scott Williamson, former Chief Product Officer at GitLab, outlines how code assistants and AI tools will redefine technology team structure.
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“I can imagine this triple roll down the line where they're doing PM, design, and engineering with the help of AI.”
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More from Scott Williamson
Williamson: Founders should not hire product leaders before achieving product-market fit
“And I think if you hand it off before then, it can be very problematic because it's these decisions, which ICP, what are we going to prioritize to build for them? What's the core user experience? These things are so central to a company, especially if it's a P…”
Williamson: MBAs are unnecessary for PMs unless aiming for executive roles
“If you want to be a badass PM, I don't think you really need it. You can learn the skills that you need to learn through product-focused training, through being in the right situation, through learning from Jedi Masters at your company. If you want to be a CPO…”
Williamson: PMs should spend 50% of time with customers, not 5%
“Now, to do that well, you need about half your time to be out of the building. Most PMs spend about 95% of their time facing engineering. And zero to fives talking to customers and being out in the world.”
Williamson: Long-form writing is the only effective way to align strategy
“And I think the only way you get to it effectively is through long form writing.”
Williamson: Product management ability is domain agnostic; domain experience is secondary
“Mostly what I'm testing for is how you do product and how you think, and that's relatively domain agnostic. I tend not to hire for domain if I don't have to”
Williamson: Founders rely on pedigree bias when hiring product managers
“Most of them haven't been a product manager. They have no idea what this role is about. So they don't know what to look for. They don't know how to grade it. And so they go off of pedigree. Oh, they were at Google or B they know the lingo, you know, they talke…”