We’re living through a generational shift in how software gets built. Developers have long been shielded from real users by layers of “process”. This came in the form of product organizations, Scrum masters, endless architecture meetings, etc. Always quick to let a product manager go ask the tough questions while the nerds sat around dreaming up over-engineered solutions in the cave. The best products I’ve ever seen came from the opposite: engineers who knew the stakeholders by name, understood their workflows, and had a real stake in their product working well. When we built the TMS at IEL, every developer there knew end-users personally. When I worked at Transfix, every engineer had a relationship with the stakeholders across payments, account managers, etc. If you worked for me, you know this was something I pushed daily. It made our teams the strongest they could be. But still there were others who did not do this. Who hid behind their product person or business analyst. This was clear in any comparison of metrics, they just weren't as effective. AI-driven “vibe coding” is forcing a shift. If a PM can prompt an AI to ship a feature in hours, what’s the point of a developer who never leaves the cave? These ineffective teams are now that much further away from the top performers. The job has changed, but it is clear: - Build direct relationships with users - Deeply understand their pain - Use AI to iterate fast and often PMs and developers can still co-exist, there is much to be handled by both. But they are a tag team, now more than ever. Building your teams to maximize AI is more than just adding it to the stack, it's building a culture of ownership. If you're not already doing both, you are behind the curve and the gap is growing exponentially every month.