The Punk PM #39

Hey there, punk!

While tech investors have been freaking out over the impact of vibe coding tools this week, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means for product managers.

The answer? Quite a lot.

AI coding tools have reached the point where the way we build software products will never be the same again.

Let’s get into it.

Quote of the Week 🙊

Insight 🦉

The cost of building software just fell off a cliff. And with it, a lot of what we thought product management was actually for.

For most of us, the entire job was shaped around one expensive truth: engineering time costs a fortune. So we became masters of mitigation. We interrogated user needs, ran discovery sprints, built MVPs, kept scope lean. We did everything possible to make sure we were building the right thing before we committed resources to building anything at all.

That was the game. Reduce waste. Manage risk. Don't burn cash on code nobody wants.

But when the cost of building drops to nearly zero, that entire premise starts to crumble.

You don't need to spend weeks in customer interviews and another month writing specs when you can ship a working v1 in a few days with Claude Code. You don't need rigorous gate-keeping when the gates are wide open and the stakes are lower than they've ever been.

The pushback has always been AI tools are fine for prototypes, but you need real engineers for anything production-grade. And look, there's still some truth to that. But then something like Moltbot comes along, vibe-coded, scrappy, and pulling serious traction, and suddenly that line doesn't hold the way it used to.

Yes, there are security risks. Yes, it's messy. Yes, this is the worst these tools will ever be. But they're already good enough to launch. Good enough to build a nascent business on. And they're only getting better.

So what does that mean for product managers?

It means we're no longer just "product thinkers." We're product builders.

Why spend time trying to articulate what your product should be when you can just code it and watch it take shape in real time? Why write a PRD when your product is the PRD? You can deploy, gather feedback, iterate, all faster than it used to take just to get alignment on a single feature.

I'm not saying software engineering is dead. If you want to build something sustainable and profitable, you'll still need someone with proper chops making sure you're not leaking customer data through some vibe-coded security hole. But the idea that you need a small army of engineers working in two-week sprints just to ship product? That's finished.

And if your version of product management has been built entirely around process, around writing specs, managing backlogs, coordinating sprints, then you're standing on very thin ice.

Because the shift is already happening. And the PMs who thrive won't be the ones clinging to ceremony. They'll be the ones who can think and build, who can turn a hunch into a live prototype before lunch and learn from real users by dinner.

The rules have changed. Stop playing by the old ones.

Action 🚀

Next week, stop planning and start building. Get hands on with some AI coding tools. Create something. Ship it. Get some user feedback.

You'll be glad you did.

Inspiration 💡

I'll Know It When I Build It – Christina Wodtke explores coding as discovery, not planning. New AI tools let you sketch in code, experimenting freely until the right idea emerges. Sometimes you only know what you want once you've built it. Read more

OpenClaw Part 2: 150,000 AI agents now have their own economy—here's what they're building while you sleep – Nate B. Jones digs into the chaotic world of decentralised AI agents. They're forming social networks, religions, even economies where agents hire other agents. This isn't AI gone rogue. It's humans letting the robots run free to see what happens. Read more

The Great Divergence: How AI Users Are Splitting Into Builders and Passengers – Juan Vasquez draws a line between two types of AI users: builders who guide the tool, and passengers who accept whatever it spits out. The builders win. The passengers lose skills, make mistakes, and fall behind. Read more

Signing Off ✍️

If this resonates with you, hit reply and let me know. And if you think a friend or colleague would enjoy The Punk PM, feel free to share it with them!

Play it your way,

Toby