#87: PM in 2026; More Pressure, More Opportunity
This week's newsletter is sponsored by UserTesting— the human insight platform.
Product Builder: The New Market Reality in the Age of AI
Alongside everything we’re already juggling as product people, where our biggest headache is honestly just trying to keep up with AI and not get left behind, there’s this new role called the Product Builder starting to pop up... It’s basically the answer to that "how do I stay relevant" anxiety. Instead of just using AI to write an email or a doc, these folks are using it as their entire engine to do what used to take a whole team. They’re blurring the lines between strategy, design, and shipping code, turning the job from "managing the process" into "actually building the thing." Major players in Berlin and even LinkedIn and Linear are already shifting their focus toward these all-rounders who can show a finished product instead of just a fancy slide deck.
The full deep dive will be in next week’s newsletter. Stay tuned!
🎫 Join our PMM Pub Special Edition on May 7th
We're getting together for a real, no-BS conversation about where PMMs actually fit into the messy world of B2B GTM, from the levers we truly own to the moments we're accidentally left out of the room. It’s a casual night to talk honestly about winning in a landscape where AI and "agentic buyers" are changing all the rules, without the dry slides or rigid frameworks. If you want to figure out how to stop just "contributing" and start actually leading the GTM motion, don't miss it!
PMM Pub Special Edition
with Vladimir Liashenko
🗓️ 7th of May
📍 Berlin
💎 Unlock Your Team’s Power: How to Audit Your Invisible Culture Signals
Every team has invisible rules — unspoken signals that shape what gets rewarded and what stays buried. In our next free webinar, Lucie McLean (Product Leader & Executive Coach at Google, ex-Zalando, ex-BBC) will walk you through a practical framework to audit your team's hidden culture signals before they quietly run the show. Join us live from anywhere on May 13 at 13:00 CET — 45 minutes, free to attend. Register here:
📰 Product Leaders’ Wisdom
Brought to you weekly by Leila Montazeri
The PM role is evolving faster than most job descriptions can keep up with. These three pieces look at what's actually changing, and what it means for how you work, lead, and stay relevant.
Amy Mitchell cuts through the noise with five sharp trends reshaping PM work in 2026. Her core argument: influence no longer comes from your title or org structure, it comes from how well you connect product decisions to business outcomes. She also raises something worth paying attention to: products are now being evaluated by AI systems before any human ever sees them. If the ground has been feeling shaky under your PM work lately, this piece puts words to exactly why.
Based on a survey across the US, France, and Germany, Atlassian’s latest report paints an honest picture of where product teams stand today. Most PMs feel respected and say they have a real seat at the strategic table, but that visibility comes with serious pressure to prove business value. A great data-backed read if you want the full picture, not just the optimistic version.
Skip the hot takes Ant Murphy went through actual industry reports to find out what’s really happening in product right now. The job market is recovering fast, companies have firmly shifted toward revenue and profitability as their north star, and strategy plus business acumen have become the skills that matter most. Data-grounded and written like a conversation, well worth 12 minutes.
💪 Open Roles
Brought to you weekly by Alessia Marchi
🎶 Song of the Newsletter
From our DJ Marco D’Avila
Thank you for the shoutout on the product management trends! I’ve written a few more articles on Builder PMs. Looking forward to your take on it!