Can Engineers Build Without Clear PM Requirements? A Community Debate on Shifting Ownership
Summary
Consensus: flat/no-PM structures (Cursor, PostHog, Anthropic, Linear) work because the builder IS the user, and doesn't generalize to B2B2C products. Common pattern for shifting ownership: give engineers direct access to user research/SMEs and have engineering own epic decomposition while PM owns the 'why' — reducing handoffs rather than eliminating the PM function, as AI makes building a more shared capability.
Why this signal
A useful cross-functional data point on how PM/engineering boundaries are shifting as AI changes who can build — relevant if Thomas Engineering is rethinking how product and engineering divide work.
Original email
Lennys Newsletter · 8/29/2026
Community Wisdom: Building without clear PM requirements, selling a product before building it, pricing fast-moving SaaS