The new lone-wolf, full-stack product manager

How "do more with less" pushes product managers to the extreme. The boundaries of product management are blurrier than ever, and I don't believe this will change anytime soon.

What it means to be a product manager is evolving. We now live in a world that expects product managers to be full-stack, multidisciplinary, everything-machines. This has always been the case when working in small, early-stage startups, but it happens now in even larger, more mature companies. Even if you specialize as a growth or monetization PM, I’d be surprised if you weren’t full-stack within your specialty. You might have designers, actuaries or data analysts you rely on, but I’m willing to bet you have to do more of that yourself these days due to resource constraints.

Much like the shift to full-stack for developers, the meaning of “full-stack” will be pushed to more extremes. Many developers must know front-end, back-end, database, system architecture, DevOps, and Data Analysis, but it wasn’t always that way. For product managers, this skillset expansion will result in lone-wolf, full-stack PMs who do everything, from designing and building a prototype to launching and evolving it.

In my coaching, I’ve worked with some traditionally non-technical PMs who are managing releases, writing QA tests, and building prototypes on top of their regular duties. Traditionally, early-stage startups might forgo product management roles altogether, but we’ll likely see more full-stack product managers at every stage of company development.

Product management is already a multi-disciplinary role, so what does it mean to be full-stack? Full-stack means you can contribute to all stages of a product’s development from inception to launch (traditionally not including development). You possess a Swiss Army knife of skills from technical know-how to data analysis, design, go-to-market, revenue management, etc.

Isn’t that enough? Well, to be a lone-wolf, full-stack product manager, you also need to:

• Design and prototype with minimal support.

• Get market traction with the prototypes you’ve built.

• Scope and plan the building of the production version.

Along with everything previously mentioned.

There are many reasons why I think this will happen, but mainly, the shift is driven by the “do more with less” mantra most companies have adopted, which has been made possible by some of the latest technical advancements and market shifts. Some of these are:

• An abundance of senior tech people:

  The more senior you are, the more chance you’ve had to work multiple roles and build your skills across various stages of business. It’s rare to get into product management without having spent a decent amount of time in another role or at least having some expertise in other areas. Product management is a likely place to start if you’re an engineer or designer recently laid off and looking for a change.

• Simplification and democratization of design and development toolsets:

  Tools, processes and systems are converging and standardizing. Most off-brand tools follow the same patterns, shortcuts, and processes as their mainstream counterparts. There are GUIs for most command-line systems and one-click setups for most other things.

• The growing power of AI and automation tools:

  Have you heard that the first Billion-dollar single-person company is around the corner? That’s partly thanks to the advancements in AI. People can get more done now than ever with a cursory understanding. So why hire data analysts, researchers, designers, and developers if you can hire one person to do it all?

• Improved toolsets for prototype development and publishing, such as:

  • Cursor’s agent mode, which can turn a PRD into an entire application within seconds.

  • One-click publishing and deployment to the cloud options are available for most infrastructure-related tasks.

  • Pre-built design systems and frameworks that eliminate a lot of the boilerplate.

• Lack of available funding:

  Many companies have adopted a ‘do more with less’ mentality. Combine this with the advancements in AI I just mentioned, and companies everywhere are expecting everyone (not just product managers) to take on more responsibilities (often at the same or less pay) to help them hit their targets.

This doesn’t just apply to product management; I also see it happening in other roles. Here are two examples just from my immediate network:

• I work with a marketing manager who has coded an internal tool to manage GDPR compliance and connected custom data feeds into email systems to improve campaign targeting capabilities.

• Commercial salespeople at my company are learning SQL and pivot tables so they can accomplish more independently without waiting on constrained resources elsewhere in the company.

While writing this post, I came across a guest post by Colin Matthews in Lenny’s newsletter, which illustrates my point even more. AI prototyping is now something anyone can do, and it will only improve from here.

What do you think? Are you experiencing a flattening of roles and having to take on more responsibilities as a product manager? Is this just a fad, or is it a trend we should be prepared for?