Product Engineer

Writing code stopped being the job. Deciding what to build is the job. This is how to make that shift before the market makes it for you.

AI is collapsing the cost of writing code. The differentiator is shifting from can you implement to can you decide what should exist and why. The pure implementer role is going extinct. Product Engineer is what's taking its place - and this is the first book on the role.

In 22 chapters across three parts, you'll:

• See why the implementer role is being squeezed from underneath - and what's replacing it
• Learn the four loads of the role: taste, skill, empathy, honesty
• Make the mental shifts an implementer never had to: outcome over output, one-person-company, generalist by default, saying no, killing features
• Run customer discovery in thirty minutes without becoming a PM
• Cost every bet - feature, technology, refactor - before you take it
• Use AI as a co-thinker instead of an autocomplete: the question-finding move you can apply Monday morning
• Ship with speed and spine, measure honestly, and operate as a one-person company inside any employer

Written for working developers, 5-15 years in, who can already write code but are starting to see that writing code is no longer the answer. Manifesto loud upfront, then a quiet, practical manual for the rest of the book.

This is not a product management book. It's an engineering book about the new shape of the engineering role. By a developer, for developers, by someone who doesn't want you to become a PM.

If your current job is taking tickets from a queue and shipping them - this book is for you.