Agents are eating the software development lifecycle from the bottom up — code generation already gone, review and ops following fast. What remains is figuring out what people actually want, which can't be automated or scaled. That job is called product engineering, it pays $240k, and nobody's training for it.
I think saying “we are all product engineers” is not accurate, but this aligns with stuff I’ve been telling my teams for a while. Everyone needs to start becoming closer to product and moving away from programming as the thing they’re valued for. (e.g. I’m not valued because I know Java inheritance rules) To be honest, it always should have been this way (it’s how I’ve lived my career), but some organizations have created this weird “product does the thinking, engineering does the programming” dichotomy and it’s in those situations where this argument makes sense. At a small startup where every new hire understands the business problem and works to achieve that goal is not where this argument makes sense.
My first job was “Analyst/Programmer I” - somewhere along the line it turned into “Programmer” and then “Software Engineer” – pushing the role farther into a technical silo and farther away from the product “because the product managers know best and the nerds need to make it happen by next quarter /s”. The success of individuals on the product side are going to be with folks who can shift to leverage AI for technical chops, and vice versa for Engineers shifting to put on their “Product Hat” more often. With any career, there’s going to be a spectrum of what skills fit into the role (e.g. some positions may be more or less technical or more or less business analyst), but I see the shift happening as a way to preserve ones career in an ever changing world. Those that do not adapt will find themselves on the outside looking in and wondering why (or as an alpaca farmer in northern Idaho because they noped out).
I think saying “we are all product engineers” is not accurate, but this aligns with stuff I’ve been telling my teams for a while. Everyone needs to start becoming closer to product and moving away from programming as the thing they’re valued for. (e.g. I’m not valued because I know Java inheritance rules) To be honest, it always should have been this way (it’s how I’ve lived my career), but some organizations have created this weird “product does the thinking, engineering does the programming” dichotomy and it’s in those situations where this argument makes sense. At a small startup where every new hire understands the business problem and works to achieve that goal is not where this argument makes sense.
My first job was “Analyst/Programmer I” - somewhere along the line it turned into “Programmer” and then “Software Engineer” – pushing the role farther into a technical silo and farther away from the product “because the product managers know best and the nerds need to make it happen by next quarter /s”. The success of individuals on the product side are going to be with folks who can shift to leverage AI for technical chops, and vice versa for Engineers shifting to put on their “Product Hat” more often. With any career, there’s going to be a spectrum of what skills fit into the role (e.g. some positions may be more or less technical or more or less business analyst), but I see the shift happening as a way to preserve ones career in an ever changing world. Those that do not adapt will find themselves on the outside looking in and wondering why (or as an alpaca farmer in northern Idaho because they noped out).