@morilliu: When I was a senior at Columbia, my dream job was to become a product manager. It was partially because of the prestige, partially because I knew I wasn't going to be the best engineer or designer, But also because the product lies at the intersection of technical understanding, strategic thinking, storytelling, and user empathy, which I believe I excel at. Yet I had barely any "product experience"... So rather than reading product playbooks, joining clubs, or trying to make my resume sound more impressive by adding keywords to bullet points, I did AI research under my favorite professors (Harry West & Lydia Chilton), won hackathons, built side projects, and documented everything on social media. By the time I was looking for a job, the CEOs of the companies I was interviewing at had already heard my name, seen the stuff I built, and knew how well I could tell stories, be it my own, a technical product, or a company changing the world. But since I graduated, the role of product management (or, honestly, work in general) has changed drastically. PM is no longer about writing perfect PRDs. Vibecoding is also not sufficient. The PMs that are truly coveted are what I like to call "Product Thinkers." Someone who: Has an intuition and opinion for what should exist both now and in the next 3–5+ years. (I would have said 10+ years, but AI has introduced so many volatile factors that almost everyone is racing in a haze.) Knows strategy. Translates it into prioritization on the roadmap. Is a master at storytelling (understands media and culture on a fundamental level, yet is not too arrogant to test it themselves. Someone who can distinguish between ephemeral phenomena and what is inevitable, and can be leveraged) I'm writing this on the occasion of giving a talk at Columbia about product management, but this is more so a reflection of how the concept of early career — or careers in general — has changed: from perfecting the resume and getting internal experience, to really just acting on what you believe in and building something worth a damn. Good luck!

mori

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Wednesday 18 March 2026 16:17:52 GMT