Food for Agile Thought #484: Vibe Coding, Product’s Hard Nature, Brittle Product Teams, Pivots & Post-Mortems

TL; DR: Vibe Coding — Food for Agile Thought #484

Welcome to the 484th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,673 peers. This week, Ethan Mollick examines vibe coding, where AI-native teams blend human expertise and AI to iterate and collaborate rapidly. Maarten Dalmijn critiques rigid planning, advocating for elastic teams that thrive in complexity. In anticipating engineering’s shift toward AI management roles, Jasper Gilley quit his FAANG job, seeing automation redefine technical careers. Michael Küsters likens middle management to Rock-Paper-Scissors, where unpredictability is key to success. At the same time, Fred Hebert dissects AI integration, emphasizing thoughtful human-in-the-loop design to avoid automation pitfalls. Also, Zvi Mowshowitz unpacks the Manus hype, revealing it as a cleverly marketed Claude wrapper, demonstrating how LLMs and AI hype cycles shape perceptions of capability.

Next, Itamar Gilad argues that product success is rare due to underestimated complexity and misaligned forces, advocating for strategic clarity and intentional culture-building. Then, David Pereira highlights how pilot testing helps PMs validate assumptions, reduce risks, and iterate faster, and Brian Balfour predicts AI will redefine product teams — transforming methodologies, roles, monetization, and distribution — urging AI-native strategies. In an…