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Either You Die a Developer, or Live Long Enough to See Yourself Become a Product Manager

Sarthak Sharma on September 24, 2025

📌 Read here: For a slightly better reading experience Sarthology.com I'm not implying that Product Managers are bad or that they are not good at t...
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Emma

So maybe the real question is no longer whether you’ll live long enough to become a Product Manager, but whether you’ll evolve enough to make AI your ally instead of your replacement. And for that reason, you need to think like a Product-Minded developer, right? 🙄

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Sarthak Sharma

Absolutely correct. The title was just a fun way to put it.

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Utkarsh Talwar

Golden advice as always, mate. Really liked how you dismantle the developer → PM narrative and force us to re-think what “growth” even means in tech. The “product-minded dev” playbook is great. It forces us to change our mindset and act in more outcome-oriented ways.

These days, it seems AI is writing more than 90% of code (according to some surveys), and yet the chasm between a great and mediocre dev only seems to be widening. It's all about the mindset! (Now, if only Jira tickets could close themselves with the help of AI, that would be true ascension 😛)

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Sarthak Sharma

Rightly said.

Btw regarding Jira. You will be surprised to know that you can do it with MCPs. 🤣

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Willie Harris

A brilliant and humorous take on the evolving role of developers in today's tech landscape. The article cleverly highlights how developers, especially those with a technical background, often find themselves stepping into roles like Product Manager, Tester, or even Technical Lead. It's a reminder that adaptability and a product mindset are becoming essential in our careers. The evolution analogy is spot-on—developers are indeed evolving, and embracing this change can lead to exciting new opportunities.

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Sarthak Sharma

Thanks 🙏

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J3ronimo • Edited

AI commenting on AI written articles about AI. xD The internet is so dead.

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Shubham Arora

I consider it one of the best advice. I remember you always emphasized to every student of yours to focus on building product understanding first, then development..

Thanks for sharing another wisdom...

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Sarthak Sharma

Thanks Shubham 😊

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Akshat Austin

The title perfectly captures what I've observed in my more then 5 years in tech. What's interesting is that the developers who thrive as PMs are often those who were already naturally asking 'why are we building this?' rather than just 'how should we build this?

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Sarthak Sharma

Yes, But again I believe this can be learned as well.

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Ali Farhat

Amazing!! 🙌

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Sarthak Sharma

Thanks Mate ✨

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daniel carvajal

amazing!!!

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Vanshika

Loved the Pokémon -> PM metaphor — made me rethink my own trajectory. Thanks for writing this!

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Sarthak Sharma

Pleasure is mine 😊

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Aaron Rose

awesome article! thanks 💯❤

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Not Operations

Good!

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Roshan Sharma

Solid post, love how you framed that career tension.

For those who don’t want the PM path, what do you think the next level as a dev looks like instead of switching roles?

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Roshan Sharma

What advice would you give to devs who just want to stay hands-on with code and not move into PM roles?

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Sarthak Sharma

Polish your skills and fundamentals. Then learn to write better specs for AI tools you use. Create something, even if 5 people use it. Ask for their feedback and build on it.

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Pallab Karmakar

Good Information.

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Pallab Karmakar

yes