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Your Product Management Career Isn’t Dead (But It Might Need a Rethink)

Your product management career is not dead
Blog Author: Tom Evans

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If you’ve scrolled LinkedIn lately, you’ve seen the headlines: AI is coming for your job. Product roles are being cut. Entire teams, downsized. And with layoffs, macroeconomic whiplash, and the looming specter of recession, it’s no wonder product managers are wondering—where do I actually fit?

Let’s set the record straight.

Your product management career isn’t dead. Neither is product management. But the definition of what makes a great product manager? That’s evolving fast.

In our recent webinar, “Your Product Management Career Is Not Dead,” instructor Tom Evans laid it out clearly: PMs who want to stay relevant—and indispensable—need to move beyond feature delivery and start operating with five core powers.

Here’s what that looks like in practice.

 

Power 1: Customer Intimacy (No, AI Can’t Do This for You)

Tom’s first point was blunt: “There’s one thing at least right now that I’m not going to trust AI for—and that’s customer intimacy.”

It’s not enough to browse dashboards or let sales be your proxy. PMs need to be talking to customers directly—frequently, intentionally, and with real curiosity.

A good rule of thumb? Aim for at least 10% of your time focused on meaningful customer discovery. If that feels unmanageable, start smaller. Make time for one voice-of-customer call a week. Schedule standing chats with customer-facing teams. Show up where your users are.

Customer intimacy isn’t just about empathy—it’s your edge. And right now, it’s one of the only ones AI can’t replicate.

 

Power 2: Outcome Thinking (Not Just Output Shipping)

The second power is about making sure what you’re building is actually moving the needle.

Too many PMs define success as “features shipped on time.” But as Tom pointed out, real leadership starts when you ask: What outcome is this driving—for our business and our customers?

In the webinar, he shared Productside’s outcome tree as a way to trace feature requests back to user and business goals. The takeaway: if you can’t connect a roadmap item to a clear outcome, it doesn’t belong there.

This isn’t about adding bureaucracy. It’s about building with intent.

 

Power 3: Continuous Discovery (Yes, Even in Enterprise)

Another recurring thread? Discovery isn’t a “phase.” It’s a mindset.

Tom challenged participants to reflect on how often they’re running small experiments—not just at the start of a roadmap cycle, but always. It doesn’t matter if you’re building a SaaS tool or a physical product—tiny acts of discovery can happen weekly.

Use your outcome-driven roadmap to flag areas of uncertainty. Then build low-cost experiments to learn your way forward. Not only will this reduce risk—it’ll make your team faster in the long run.

Slow down to speed up. It’s not just a mantra. It’s a competitive advantage.

 

Power 4: Strategic Influence (Data-Driven > Hippo-Driven)

Every PM has faced it: an executive barrels in with a “must-have” request, and suddenly your roadmap is on fire.

But great PMs don’t just absorb the chaos—they navigate it.

In the poll Tom ran during the session, 65% of attendees said they “influence with data.” That’s encouraging. But too many still default to “they tell us, we build it.”

If you want to lead in your product management career, not just react, you need to bring more than facts. You need to bring stories—clear, confident, data-backed narratives that help stakeholders see the why behind the what. Because strategy isn’t just about having the right answer. It’s about getting others to believe in it, too.

 

Power 5: AI Fluency Is a Must for Your Product Management Career

Let’s talk about the elephant in every room: AI.

AI isn’t replacing PMs. But PMs who know how to use AI are replacing those who don’t.

From market research to hypothesis generation to drafting product docs, AI can make you faster and sharper—if you’ve got the fundamentals. If you don’t? You’ll prompt badly, analyze poorly, and make wrong assumptions faster than ever.

Tom’s take: “AI won’t make you better unless you have strong fundamentals in place.” It’s the calculator analogy—don’t hand a tool to someone who doesn’t know what question they’re solving.

So yes, use AI. Daily, if you can. But don’t skip the foundational skills that make it worth using.

 

So, How Do You Make Yourself Indispensable?

If you’re looking around and wondering how to stand out, here’s the TL;DR from the session:

  • Build real customer empathy.

  • Link your work to measurable outcomes.

  • Make discovery a habit, not a checkbox.

  • Lead with data, and influence through stories.

  • Use AI to enhance your work—not define it.

And maybe the biggest mindset shift? Your product isn’t just the software your team is building. You are a product, too.

Invest in your positioning. Sharpen your strategy. Clarify your value. The market is watching—and the PMs who embrace this evolution are the ones who’ll stay in the game.

You’re not here to be replaced.

You’re here to become indispensable.

 

Sharpen Your Edge. Move Fast.

Want to turn these takeaways into action?

Are you building products or just delivering tickets? What’s your take? Join the conversation and share your thoughts with us on LinkedIn.