Recap: Rethinking Roles in Technology and Product

The theme this week “Rethinking Roles in Technology and Product” didn’t mention anything about AI, but was hugely impacted by it.

My Recap #

Culture - Traditional developer culture is going to be affected by the new tools, and invariably, some will resist. The ones who embrace change and the new skills required will benefit the most. Others will be at risk.

Hiring - Job descriptions are going to need adjustment based on new skills needed. The hiring process and interviews will also need to be tweaked.

Processes - This was the biggest ‘gray area’ in my opinion. Nobody really knows what the future state will look like at this point, but there are some glimpses. My take is that people will need to know what is changed in an individual developer workflow before trying to apply it to scrum sizes teams and then larger enterprises. Otherwise, you stand to confuse and risk a lot.

Leadership & Role - Developers with their heads in the code, without the ability to see the forest through the trees will now need to try to see the big picture, or risk being eliminated due to increased competition from machines as well as humans. This has traditionally been the purview of software development leaders, technical product managers, and architects. Now, a new role is emerging and has been witnessed at many organizations, with just as many names for the new role.

Business Executives - Executives will absolutely seek to leverage the promises of AI such as 5-10x productivity, reduction in coders, etc because that just makes good business sense. However, if the other areas on this list are ignored, organizations that wish to receive these benefits could meet with very different outcomes.

John Vanko is a results-oriented, hands-on executive with 20+ years experience in leading engineering and product teams. I have a track record of building and scaling solutions in organizations ranging from early-stage startups to large enterprises.