Collection · 9 entries

The Builder PM Career

The job description has changed. The PM who wrote specs and waited got let go; the Product Builder who ships got the offer, at every level. This collection traces the role from L4 to Principal, what's expected at each rung, how to interview, how the hiring side reads it.

If you only read three
  1. 01How Your PMs Ship Their First Pull Request (and Why You Should Want Them To)A step-by-step guide for product leaders on how PMs can ship code with AI tools like Claude Code and Cursor. Includes a four-level PR ladder, PLANNING.md templates, a PM PR review skill file, pitch docs for CTO buy-in, and a customer signal monitoring playbook. Built from real coaching engagements across B2B SaaS orgs.16 min read
  2. 02200 PM Job Descriptions Reviewed: 98% Hire for a Dead Job200 PM job descriptions audited. 196 of 200 could have been written in 2022. The four tells of a dead JD, the four tells of a live one, and a before-and-after rewrite.10 min read
  3. 03The AI Product Engineer: One Person Doing What Used to Take a TeamAI is blurring the lines between PM, design, and engineering. The people who can work across all three with AI tools are going to own the next decade of product.5 min read

The full reading order

9 entries
  1. 01200 PM Job Descriptions Reviewed: 98% Hire for a Dead Job200 PM job descriptions audited. 196 of 200 could have been written in 2022. The four tells of a dead JD, the four tells of a live one, and a before-and-after rewrite.10 min readApr 26
  2. 02pragmatic-pm-ai-skills Review: A Claude Skill That Tightens PM-AI OutputReview of Valentin Brain's pragmatic-pm-ai-skills: a Claude Skill library that makes PM-AI output incentive-aware, evidence-tied, and free of generic advice.8 min readApr 26
  3. 03How Your PMs Ship Their First Pull Request (and Why You Should Want Them To)A step-by-step guide for product leaders on how PMs can ship code with AI tools like Claude Code and Cursor. Includes a four-level PR ladder, PLANNING.md templates, a PM PR review skill file, pitch docs for CTO buy-in, and a customer signal monitoring playbook. Built from real coaching engagements across B2B SaaS orgs.16 min readApr 26
  4. 04Your Product KPIs Are Your Job, DailyA product builder without a daily KPI ritual is a product builder driving with the rear-view mirror. Define them once, watch them every morning, elevate them when they slip.11 min readApr 26
  5. 05The Product Builder Job Ladder: From L4 to Principal, Four JDs You Can Fork TodayA complete, fork-ready job-description ladder for Builder PMs. Four levels calibrated to scale from your first Builder hire to your most senior IC. Each level downloadable as its own file.6 min readApr 26
  6. 06The PM Role Is Being Rewritten in Real Time. Are You Rewriting Yourself?AI-forward companies are hiring for 'Product Builders.' This isn't a quirky experiment. It's the new standard. Here are the six skills that actually matter now.12 min readApr 26
  7. 07The PM-as-Translator Is DeadFor 15 years, product managers were professional middleware - reformatting customer input into decks for engineers. AI just eliminated every layer of translation between the PM and the product.9 min readMar 26
  8. 08PMs Won't Be Automated - They'll Be AmplifiedThe hot take that AI will replace PMs is wrong. But the PMs who survive will look nothing like the PMs of today.4 min readMar 26
  9. 09The AI Product Engineer: One Person Doing What Used to Take a TeamAI is blurring the lines between PM, design, and engineering. The people who can work across all three with AI tools are going to own the next decade of product.5 min readNov 24
Back to all field notesMore collections in the sidebar at /blog