ElevenLabs intentionally never hired PMs. Instead, they optimize for engineers who also understand customers and design. AI tooling helps these individuals bridge skill gaps, allowing them to manage the entire product development cycle independently, eliminating the need for a traditional PM role.

Embed engineers directly with customers to hear feedback and ship solutions, often on the same day. This radical structure eliminates layers of communication (Product Managers, Customer Success) and scales the 'founder energy' of talking to users and immediately building what they need.

Instead of a traditional product roadmap, give engineers ownership of a broad "problem space." This high-agency model pushes them to get "forward deployed" with customers, uncover real needs, and build solutions directly. This ensures product development is tied to actual pain points and fosters a strong sense of ownership.

To maintain a culture of 'doers', Applovin eliminated the product management function entirely. Engineers are expected to act as their own product managers, understanding the core business KPIs and ensuring their work directly drives revenue. This blurs traditional roles and accelerates value creation.

AppLovin's CTO initially tried to set up weekly one-on-ones, but they were quickly canceled. The engineering culture, driven by a "doer" mindset, prioritized direct communication via code, finding it more efficient than traditional management processes even at scale.

Hanover Park’s organizational design has no product managers or designers. Instead, it embeds engineers directly with fund accountants—the domain experts. This creates a tight feedback loop that allows them to build a more informed and practical product much faster by aligning development directly with user needs.

The V0 team operates with minimal product management oversight, empowering product-minded engineers (often ex-founders) to make 95% of product decisions directly. This sacrifices potentially "perfect" choices for a dramatic increase in development velocity.

Sundial founder Julie Zhu intentionally avoids hiring product managers. This constraint forces engineers to take full ownership of the product definition and user value, preventing them from delegating critical product thinking and developing a stronger sense of customer empathy.

In an AI company, product discovery is tied to latent model capabilities. Legora's structure reflects this with a minimal product management layer. Instead, technical, research-led engineering teams directly translate model advancements into customer solutions.