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February 2, 2026 Leadership & AI

When "Execution" Becomes Free: The Rise of the PM & Tech Lead Duo

Khi "Thực thi" trở nên miễn phí: Sự trỗi dậy của bộ đôi PM & Tech Lead

A few years ago, the line between a Product Manager (PM) and a Technical Lead (Tech Lead) was crystal clear. The PM painted the "Dream," while the Tech Lead was the one who "Realized" that dream through laborious lines of code.

But in the AI era, when coding (Execution) is becoming "cheap" and dizzingly fast, many people are starting to ask: Do we still need so many roles?

My answer is: Yes, but in a completely different way.

The Trap Called "AI Can Do Everything"

Many PMs are under the illusion that: "Now I just need to use Claude or GPT-4o and I can build products myself, no need for a complex engineering team."

This is a fatal mistake. AI can write a script that runs immediately, but it doesn't know how to build a System. There's a huge difference between a battery-powered toy car and a transportation system that operates smoothly for millions of people.

Without systematic technical thinking behind it, what AI creates is just a pile of patched-together "junk code"—what we call a technical Frankenstein monster. It might run today, but it will collapse completely when you want to add a new feature tomorrow.

The Shift: From "Builder" to "Architect"

In the new world, the Tech Lead is no longer the "best coder on the team." Their role shifts to a higher level: Risk Management and Structure Design.

  • Tech Lead now is like an appraiser. They don't directly lay each brick (AI does that), but they know whether that brick is in the right load-bearing position. They worry about security, scalability, and how to prevent the code that AI "just spawned" from becoming technical debt that strangles the company in 6 months.
  • PM is no longer just someone who writes requirements (tickets). When execution is no longer a barrier, PMs face the biggest pressure: Choosing the right problem to solve. If you can build anything in 1 week, then "building the wrong thing that no one uses" is a terrible waste.

The Symbiotic Duo: Two Sides of the Same Coin

I believe the future of the software industry lies in the collaboration of this duo. They no longer work in a "hand-over" style but in Symbiosis:

  1. PM defines Value: "Why are we doing this? Does it bring money or satisfaction to whom?"
  2. Tech Lead defines Sustainability: "How will we use AI to build this so the system doesn't explode when 100,000 users come?"

AI plays the role of an endless "digital workforce." But without the compass of the PM and the solid framework of the Tech Lead, that workforce will only create chaos.