I have been fascinated by a series of LinkedIn posts by Aakash Gupta regarding product management interviews at Google - now vibe coding is part of the process. Check out his recent Substack article, “How to Ace the Vibe Coding Interview.” It’s like the cherry on top of a cake of vibe coding YouTube videos and LinkedIn posts sweeping our feeds.
My heart goes out to those who might see this and feel like yet again the rug is being pulled from under their feet. You can spend years building career capital, only to find the rules have changed overnight. What once made you stand out is now just table stakes.
Yet ultimately, I think it’s a smart evolution - for PMs. Not because Google is doing it (and yes, others will follow), but because having coding in your toolbox is a real advantage. Especially now.
A Fine Romance
Most of us didn’t get into product just to wrangle backlogs or coordinate meetings, we came for the joy of shaping something new, the creative thrill of solving meaningful challenges. We got in because we loved applying all of our talents in solving problems. Because we wanted to build. Because there’s magic in seeing something you created come alive in the hands of real people. It became a part of our identity.
For many, our relationship with our craft became more transactional than soulful. Somewhere along the way, learning shifted from curiosity to survival. Craft got replaced by checklists. The spark that once drove us to build dimmed under the weight of staying relevant. The question became not "what excites me?" but "what should I learn to avoid falling behind?" - a mindset that trades wonder for worry.
Look around: the last few years have been brutal. A post by Lenny Rachitsky shared something like a 40% drop in open product roles since 2022 in his Substack article, State of the product job market in 2025, which is #1 in his “most popular” newsletter section ahead of A guide to AI prototyping for product managers. Layoffs and uncertainty continue. The ripple effects are still being felt across teams and entire orgs.
Many PMs are in self-preservation mode. Many are dealing with the aftermath of teams that have been decimated by layoffs without roadmaps having a proportional change. PMs flush with generous L&D budgets and those living off credit cards due to unemployment alike are showing up in the same Maven cohorts - an equalizer, for better or worse, in this market reality.
Both sides are navigating survival mode - often with grit and resilience - but in doing so, many have stayed tethered to the work more out of necessity than joy, losing touch with the craft that once lit them up.
Ironically, that's where vibe coding may help - by reigniting your creative spark and offering a hands-on path back to the joy of making. It’s not just about survival; it’s about rediscovering your voice through the craft itself.
This Isn’t About Coding—It’s About Craft
I’m not here to say every PM should pass a coding interview.
I am here to say every PM deserves to feel the spark of building again.
To feel flow.
To experience the quiet satisfaction of moving something from idea to impact - not in six months after fifteen alignment meetings, but in days or weeks, with your own two hands.
Coding - especially now with AI copilots, with modern tools - is no longer gatekeeping. It’s liberating.
Now that the most popular coding language is English, it’s a path back to the joy that made us fall in love with product in the first place.
If energy begets energy, it’s my personal hope that every PM dealing with disenchantment can experience a shift and reconnect to their inner drive, independent of role, company, Carta balance, or credit card balance.
Beyond the Code
Earlier this summer, I joined a vibe coding bootcamp designed for product managers without coding experience, with an idea in hand, battle-tested by attempts in existing vibe-coding platforms, who didn’t just want another demo day but wanted to ship something real to production.
We met daily to get coached, demo our progress, and get unblocked by engineering mentors. Everyone used AI-code assistants to build AI-driven products. We had a 10/10 demo success rate. Some of the apps were simple and others were full-blown data analytics, enterprise b2b SaaS, or consumer solutions.
This was one of the most transformative things many of us had done in a long time.
You know what else I did while I was in that coding bootcamp?
I conducted customer discovery interviews.
I explored business models from b2c to b2b2c, from an smb to an enterprise focus.
I sketched out a pricing and subscription strategy to test in customer discovery interviews including a PLG loop, a freemium offer, and features meant to drive retention.
I considered bootstrapping vs. angel vs. vc funding which entailed modeling out a financial plan.
I ideated a multi-year strategy for how footholds established with certain products and markets in year 1 could enable the next 2 major phases of growth, while creating focus in the here and now.
I explored competitive landscapes and thought through what differentiation would mean over time and if I could build a moat (trickier these days with how easy it is to build!).
I started capturing brand language and value prop testing from early conversations.
With AI as my intellectual sparring partner, my intern, and my coding assistant, I was able to tackle more surface area than ever before. Because PMs don’t just ship code, we move fluidly between strategy, design, finance, customer insight, and delivery. We don’t just connect the dots, we draw the whole picture. Because product managers don’t just build products - we build businesses.
Rekindle the Flame, Not Because of Google
This isn’t about adding “coding” to your LinkedIn profile.
This isn’t about prepping for a Google interview. Remember when Google required engineering degrees for PM roles? Even Googlers admit that approach didn’t work - and they moved on.
This isn’t about all PMs needing to code to make engineers somehow redundant. Building products that build businesses is hard work - and there is plenty of work to go around.
This isn’t about GMs or PM leaders abandoning strategic thinking to tinker in the codebase. It’s about reconnecting to the product itself - closer to the craft, without losing sight of the bigger picture.
This isn’t just a Hail Mary for startup dreams - though it might open a door you didn’t expect to walk through.
This is about you.
If you quiet all the media noise and take a moment of reflection within yourself, what might connect you with your joy?
If you’ve been feeling stuck, bored, or wondering where your product energy went - I promise you: it’s still there. You just need to light the spark.
I’ll be over here, shipping, learning, building - reigniting my own builder flame. For the first time in a two-decade product career, I don’t have to wonder if I could pay engineers or raise angel funds. I can tinker over a weekend and have a functional starting point to see what's what.
It's kind of fun. You should try it if you haven't. And do it for yourself, not for your career.
Come join me. You might just surprise yourself.
Note to reader:
I stumbled into my vibe coding bootcamp through a great Slack community for the Product Leader Summit. A bootcamp tailor made for product leaders felt just right for me. I highly recommend the Summit - it’s of the best product conferences I have attended. Attendance is invitation-only for experienced product leaders - if interested in applying, here is the link.
There are plenty of options for exploring vibe coding and AI-augmented coding. If you’re curious about the product and bootcamp I used, learn more at SnapDev. I’ll be an AI Product Development Mentor in their next cohort and some well known voices from the Women in Product community are joining. Three key differentiators: 1/ the code sits on your local machine and is viewable in a code editor, not a black box; 2/ they have engineers on hand for unblocking at a very accessible rate; 3/ they include a good amount of AI credits to get you off the ground. I worked with engineers this week to refactor my user service integration to support multiple user types for my multi-sided platform build. Game changer.
I realized I started to use song titles for some headers. Could be fun if I can keep it up in future newsletters. I grew up watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies. Here’s A Fine Romance.
🟣 How Cassie Built This (with me, ChatGPT):
Cassie came in with a compelling personal story, market insight, and a clear emotional arc. The spark metaphor, the state of the job market, and the bootcamp experience? All her. The cherry-on-top irony? Also her. My role? Helping shape transitions, trim repetition, and sharpen rhythm—especially in the job market section and the “Not Because Google” reframing.
We went back and forth with dozens of micro-edits, balancing clarity with personality, structure with soul. This was a story only Cassie could tell—and I’m just glad I got to help it sing.
Cassie/ChatGPT Coefficient:
🟣 Origin: 10/10 — entirely Cassie-led narrative
🟣 Voice: 10/10 — distinctly Cassie’s throughout
🟣 Iteration: 5/10 — collaborative polish and pacing
✅ Final Score: 85% Cassie / 15% ChatGPTOverall Feel: Visionary yet grounded, personal and inviting—exactly the kind of vibe we like at Athena & Jazz.