Episode Summary
Tomer Cohen is the longtime chief product officer at LinkedIn, where he’s pioneering the Full Stack Builder program, a radical new approach to product development that fully embraces what AI makes possible. Under his leadership, LinkedIn has scrapped its traditional Associate Product Manager program and replaced it with an Associate Product Builder program that teaches coding, design, and PM skills together. He’s also introduced a formal “Full Stack Builder” title and career ladder, enabling anyone from any function to take products from idea to launch. In this conversation, Tomer explains why product development has become too complex at most companies and how LinkedIn is building an AI-powered product team that can move faster, adapt more quickly, and do more with less.We discuss:1. How 70% of the skills needed for jobs will change by 20302. The broken traditional model: organizational bloat slows features to a six-month cycle3. The Full Stack Builder model4. Three pillars of making FSB work: platform, agents, and culture (culture matters most)5. Building specialized agents that critique ideas and find vulnerabilities6. Why off-the-shelf AI tools never work on enterprise code without customization7. Top performers adopt AI tools fastest, contrary to expectations about leveling effects8. Change management tactics: celebrating wins, making tools exclusive, updating performance reviews—Brought to you by:Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lennyFigma Make—A prompt-to-code tool for making ideas real: https://www.figma.com/lenny/Miro—The AI Innovation Workspace where teams discover, plan, and ship breakthrough products: https://miro.com/lenny—Transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-linkedin-is-replacing-pms—My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/180042347/my-takeaways-from-this-conversation—Where to find Tomer Cohen:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomercohen• Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/building-one-with-tomer-cohen/id1726672498—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Tomer Cohen(04:42) The need for change in product development(11:52) The full-stack builder model explained(16:03) Implementing AI and automation in product development(19:17) Building and customizing AI tools(27:51) The timeline to launch(31:46) Pilot program and early results(37:04) Feedback from top talent(39:48) Change management and a
