The question "do we need product management?" often arises from a fundamental misunderstanding of the role. When organizations use product managers like a hammer to cut a branch (ship features) instead of hammering a nail (solve the right customer problem), they are misusing the tool and will inevitably question its value.
With tools that make building faster than ever, it's easier to fall into the "build trap" of shipping features without validating their value. This shifts the primary bottleneck from execution to strategy, making the product manager's core job of identifying the *right* problem to solve more crucial than ever.
Given the choice between a revenue goal and a feature-shipping goal, many PMs choose the latter. It's an easier, more controllable path, even if it delivers less business value. This reveals a systemic flaw in how many organizations measure and incentivize the product function, rewarding activity over impact.
Shipping a new feature isn't free; it creates a "blast radius" of work for the entire organization. Sales must learn to sell it, marketing must build pipeline, and support must be ready for inquiries. Effective product managers account for this total operational cost, not just the development effort, when placing bets.
The product role requires a critical mindset shift. During discovery, the PM acts as a detective, gathering clues and data to form a hypothesis. Once a decision is made, they must transition to a cheerleader, rallying the entire organization—sales, marketing, success—to believe in the bet and ensure its success.
Transforming a feature factory into a value-driven organization is a geometric problem. It isn't enough to convince leadership. You must also change the behaviors of engineers accustomed to tickets and stakeholders accustomed to making demands. It requires a full-stack cultural change.
A powerful diagnostic for any product manager is to ask senior leadership to define product's responsibilities. Compare their answer to your own understanding of the role. The gap between those two lists represents the core misalignment you must address to become effective and demonstrate value.
Tools like AI and cloud code streamline the 'how' of building products by reducing execution friction. However, they don't address the strategic 'what' or 'why'—the 'thinking friction' of identifying the right problem and defining value. This is where a product manager's role becomes even more essential.