The product management job everyone wants might not exist.
Why successful companies distribute product work instead of hiring traditional product people.
I’ve been refreshing the same job boards for months, watching “Product Manager” postings collect hundreds of applications while companies hire for everything except product managers. Then I discovered something that made me question whether I’d been chasing the wrong opportunity entirely.
Many of the most successful product companies today don’t have traditional product people at all.
PostHog generates $27M+ revenue with engineers making both prioritization and solution decisions. Linear serves 66% of Forbes Top 50 AI companies with just one Head of Product for their entire 60-person team. Notion reached $10B valuation with founder-driven product vision and autonomous teams.
This insight crystallized during my recent role as a 50% program manager. I kept waiting for roadmap discussions and sprint ceremonies that never came. Instead, business leaders drove product decisions, engineers owned features end-to-end, and designers influenced strategy equally. The company is still doing great.
I realized I’d been optimizing for a job structure that’s increasingly misaligned with how successful companies actually operate.
Why traditional PM structures are rarer than we think.
While everyone discusses product management as the career path, documented cases of people transitioning out of product roles are surprisingly scarce. Not because it’s impossible, but because the role creates what I call “career stickiness” - its breadth naturally leads toward Director, VP, or Chief Product Officer advancement.
But here’s the counterintuitive finding: this scarcity isn’t because product management is perfect. It’s because many companies solve product challenges without traditional product structures entirely.
Viktor Baumann captured this beautifully in his transition from Product Manager to Project Manager: “I started to realize that while the theory was beautiful, in practice it was quite different. Most companies needed someone to coordinate and deliver, not necessarily someone to own the product vision.”
How successful companies actually organize product work.
PostHog operates with complete engineering autonomy. Engineers have “complete control to decide both the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of features we build.” Their Head of Product Strategy gathers context rather than dictating solutions.
Linear distributes product duties “across engineering and design” with decisions based on “taste and opinions rather than metrics.” They’ve maintained profitability for two years while spending only $35K total on paid marketing.
Notion’s Ivan Zhao maintains founder-driven product vision while hiring “high-quality people who can work autonomously.” No traditional product management layer - just empowered teams making decisions close to users.
Even Airbnb eliminated “the classic product management function” under Brian Chesky’s return to direct product involvement, contributing to their path back to profitability.
McKinsey’s research backs this up: companies in the top quartile of operating model maturity achieved 60% higher returns to shareholders. The key isn’t having product managers - it’s having product-minded people throughout the organization.
So, if successful companies are distributing product work instead of concentrating it in traditional product roles, what does that mean for those of us staring at job boards?
What this means for your career strategy.
My recent program management experience suddenly made sense. I wasn’t doing “lesser” product work - I was doing product work the way many successful companies actually organize it.
This creates different opportunities than the standard product ladder:
Product-minded engineers who make informed decisions within technical constraints.
Strategic business leaders who combine domain expertise with user empathy.
Design leaders who influence product strategy equally with traditional PMs.
Program coordinators who orchestrate delivery across autonomous teams.
The realization is one thing. Actually repositioning yourself is another.
Navigating the shift.
After experiencing both traditional product structures and distributed product organizations, here’s what actually works:
Stop optimizing for the PM title.
Start optimizing for product impact instead.
Many companies need product thinking without product overhead.
Position yourself for the work, not the label.
Develop product skills alongside domain expertise.
Whether you’re in engineering, design, business operations, or strategy, product thinking amplifies your effectiveness.
The combination is more valuable than pure product skills.
You become bilingual - speaking both your function and product.
Look for companies embracing distributed models.
These organizations often offer more autonomy and faster decision-making.
You’ll have direct impact on outcomes rather than influence through committees.
Search for keywords like “autonomous teams,” “engineering-led,” or “founder-driven”.
Build bridges between functions.
The highest-value professionals translate between engineering, design, business, and users
This skill transfers across any organizational model
You become the connective tissue that makes distributed models work
These aren’t just career moves - they’re recognizing where the actual opportunity exists right now.
The career path that actually exists.
The most interesting careers look like expanding influence - product thinking applied to increasingly complex organizational challenges.
You might become a product-minded engineering leader who influences technical architecture through user empathy. Or a business operations expert who optimizes entire customer experiences rather than individual features.
The companies winning aren’t necessarily hiring more product managers. They’re hiring people who can think about products within their domains of expertise.
Just remember - The best product jobs might not have “Product Manager” in the title at all. Which means your opportunities just got a lot wider than a single job posting.
Until next week,
Want to connect? Send me a message on LinkedIn, Bluesky, Threads, or Instagram.
I’m starting to work with startups in a consulting capacity, helping founders navigate the specific product challenges that generic advice can’t touch.
If you’re dealing with scattered priorities, unclear customer needs, or reactive product decisions that feel uniquely messy, I’d love to hear about your situation.
Sometimes the most valuable conversation is the one tailored to your exact context, not startup theory in general.
"Which means your opportunities just got a lot wider than a single job posting"
preach! this statement is IT. with the speed things are changing, we get more ROI from our relationships, expertise, and perspectives vs the job title.
What do you find are the job titles for these roles? Are they just "regular" job titles (e.g., "software engineer") and product skills are what might differentiate you enough to get the job?