Will AI replace PMs? Why shipping 10x faster doesn't mean 10x more winners | Rich Mironov

If AI makes it faster to write code, what happens to the product manager's job? I asked Rich Mironov, who has worked in software product management for 40 years and writes about it at mironov.com. Rich walks through his math on why shipping ten times as many products into the same market does not create ten times as many winners. The same buyers are still looking for software, so four wins out of ten becomes four wins out of a hundred. We talk about the difference between engineering waste and product waste, why speed moves the bottleneck to users, buyers, marketing and sales, and what that means for designers, engineers and product managers. We also get into discovery. Rich is happy to let AI summarize transcripts. He still wants a product manager, a designer and an engineer in the room when real users talk, because a script cannot follow the surprising thing someone just said. And we look at the barbell shape of the product job and what he thinks AI tools will look like by 2031. I closed with the question I ask every guest: what does it mean to you to be more human right now? In this conversation: Why 10x faster code does not mean 10x more winners Engineering waste versus product waste Where product managers spend their time when engineering speeds up What senior designers and engineers bring when agents do the first pass Why discovery interviews need humans in the room The barbell: more weight on what to build and how to sell it Guardrails: spending more discovery time on bigger and riskier bets Looking ahead to 2031 What it means to be more human About Rich: Rich has led product teams for 40 years, including six Silicon Valley B2B software startups (3 exits) and 15 interim CPO roles. Today, he coaches product leaders. Rich is the author of "Money Stories" and "The Art of Product Management." He has been blogging about software product management since 2002 and launched the first Product Camps. Find Rich: https://www.mironov.com Book Money Stories: https://www.amazon.com/Money-Stories-... Human x Intelligent: https://humanxintelligent.com