Nikhyl Singhal is the founder of The Skip, a community for senior product leaders; a former product exec at Meta, Google, and Credit Karma; and a
many-time founder. He’s also one of the most honest, unfiltered voices on what’s actually happening in product management right now.
In our in-depth conversation, we discuss: 1. Why the next two years will be the most chaotic period in product management history 2. Why half of
current product managers are at risk, and what separates those who’ll do well 3. Why you need to find your “moments of joy” with AI 4. The “smiling
exhaustion” he’s seeing across the product community 5. The psychological barriers that prevent people from reinventing themselves 6. Why your
resume’s fancy logos matter less than ever, and what matters now 7. His prediction that companies will shed 30,000 people and rehire 8,000—all
AI-first
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Episode transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-half-of-product-managers-are-in-trouble Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0
Where to find Nikhyl Singhal: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhyl • X: https://x.com/nikhyl • Podcast & Newsletter: https://skip.show •
Skip Community: https://skip.community • Skip Coach: https://skip.coach • Skip.help: https://skip.help
Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction to Nikhyl Singhal (02:25) The big picture: what’s changing for product managers (10:00) Are product
leaders doing better than 2-3 years ago? (11:44) What will change in the next couple of years (14:23) How companies are changing the way they build
products (15:51) What “judgment” really means for PMs (17:46) Why there won’t be any more bad software (20:25) The skills you need to be effective
today (23:31) Why there are more PM roles than ever (24:27) The builder versus information-mover divide (30:14) The non-builder problem (30:53) Should
PMs code? (34:15) Why experienced leaders still matter (35:44) The diversity setback nobody’s talking about (37:21) Why your brand doesn’t matter as
much anymore (39:54) How valued skills are flipping upside down (40:49) Why change is so hard for humans (43:53) The “equal disappointment” algorithm
(46:39) You must cross the threshold (48:37) This chaos will settle (53:19) Finding your moment of joy (58:50) Nikhyl’s AI stack and what he’s
building (1:00:53) The obsolescence mindset (1:05:24) Specific advice for PMs right now (1:08:58) The four jobs that will exist in the future
(1:11:59) Why alignment is changing (but not disappearing) (1:15:40) How engineering is changing even more than PM (1:17:04) The surprising design
plateau (1:18:49) Finding optimism in the chaos (1:21:12) Lightning round
Referenced: • Building a long and meaningful career | Nikhyl Singhal (Meta, Google):
https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-a-long-and-meaningful-career • COBOL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL • United Airlines:
https://www.united.com • State of the product job market in early 2026: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/state-of-the-product-job-market-in-ee9 •
Head of Growth (Anthropic): “Claude is growing itself at this point” | Amol Avasare:
https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-1b-to-19b-growth-run • Demis Hassabis on X: https://x.com/demishassabis • Sam Altman on X:
https://x.com/sama • Dario Amodei on X: https://x.com/DarioAmodei • Cross on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Cross-Season-1/dp/B0D6X7ZZHC • Jack
Ryan on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Clancys-Jack-Ryan/dp/B0CNDCMN8R • 24 on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/24-Season-1/dp/B000HPF85A
• Claude Code: https://code.claude.com • Codex: https://chatgpt.com/codex • Lovable: https://lovable.dev • Sonos: https://www.sonos.com • “There are
only four jobs” on X: https://x.com/yrechtman/status/2039012253341495462 • Paradise on Hulu:
https://www.hulu.com/series/paradise-2b4b8988-50c9-4097-bf93-bc34a99a5b4f • Lioness on Paramount+: https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/lioness •
Albert Einstein’s quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/115696-genius-is-1-talent-and-99-percent-hard-work
Recommended books: • James: https://www.amazon.com/James-Novel-Percival-Everett/dp/0385550367 • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Huckleberry-Finn-Unabridged-Uncensored/dp/195483943X
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.