Rethinking Product Management: Airbnb’s Bold Move Sparks Industry Debate
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky sent shockwaves through the product community with his recent announcement at Figma’s Config23 conference. In a move that left some audience members perplexed and others applauding, Chesky revealed that Airbnb was eliminating the traditional product management function in favor of a design-led approach. However, as the dust settled, it became clear that this wasn’t entirely the case. Instead, Airbnb merged product management and product marketing into a single unit, sparking a heated debate about the future of product management.
A Cohesive Vision for Products and Features
Chesky explained that Airbnb’s leadership sought to promote a more cohesive vision for their products and features. By having product managers also responsible for marketing, they would naturally become better at communicating the value of their products. As Chesky put it, “You can’t develop products unless you know how to talk about the products.”
Industry Insights: A Mixed Bag of Opinions
We asked several product leaders to share their thoughts on Airbnb’s restructuring. Kimberly Hale, senior product manager at Iterable, emphasized the importance of collaboration between product management, engineering, and UX design. “I love my designers, but their skills are in designing beautiful, user-friendly experiences. They are not versed in uncovering user pain points, prioritizing features, and all the planning involved in getting a product out to market.”
Haresh Raval, an executive product leader at Newegg, highlighted the potential risks of Airbnb’s design-led approach, citing strategic alignment, business perspective, and technical feasibility as areas of concern. Joel Polanco, senior product leader at Intel, echoed Raval’s sentiments, emphasizing the importance of considering a company’s specific context, culture, and stage of development.
Experimentation and Breaking Bad Habits
Some product leaders see Airbnb’s move as an opportunity to experiment and break free from traditional product management structures. Kelsey Nintzel, head of product at Bounti.ai, noted that this approach could help prevent great ideas from being squashed by biased leadership teams.
The Future of Product Management
Despite the sensational headlines, Airbnb isn’t eliminating the product management function entirely. Instead, they’re adjusting the way their PMs work within their unique organization. As Janna Bastow, co-founder of Mind The Product and ProdPad, pointed out, “This whole ‘we’re getting rid of PMs’ is basically just clickbait.”
The outlook for product managers remains uncertain, but one thing is clear: the PM role will continue to evolve. Whether it’s becoming more hybrid, design-led, or engineering-led, the fundamental purpose of a PM will remain the same – to deliver valuable and user-centric products.
The Connective Tissue of Collaboration
As Nintzel aptly put it, “Every company is looking to fill the void in connecting teams for better collaboration and execution of ideas. I believe that this connective tissue is what PMs will continue to fill, either by connecting product opportunities with technical implementation, or by connecting product opportunities more closely with marketing and CS.”
The future of product management may be uncertain, but one thing is clear – the PM role will continue to adapt and evolve to meet the changing needs of organizations and their customers.