Tomer Cohen: How LinkedIn collapsed PM into full-stack pods

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

December 4, 2025

Duration

1h 7m

Channel

Lenny's Podcast

Watch on YouTube

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📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Tomer Cohen is the longtime chief product officer at LinkedIn, where he’s pioneering the Full Stack Builder program, a radical new approach to product development that fully embraces what AI makes possible. Under his leadership, LinkedIn has scrapped its traditional Associate Product Manager program and replaced it with an Associate Product Builder program that teaches coding, design, and PM skills together. He’s also introduced a formal “Full Stack Builder” title and career ladder, enabling anyone from any function to take products from idea to launch. In this conversation, Tomer explains why product development has become too complex at most companies and how LinkedIn is building an AI-powered product team that can move faster, adapt more quickly, and do more with less. *We discuss:*

1. How 70% of the skills needed for jobs will change by 2030
2. The broken traditional model: organizational bloat slows features to a six-month cycle
3. The Full Stack Builder model
4. Three pillars of making FSB work: platform, agents, and culture (culture matters most)
5. Building specialized agents that critique ideas and find vulnerabilities
6. Why off-the-shelf AI tools never work on enterprise code without customization
7. Top performers adopt AI tools fastest, contrary to expectations about leveling effects
8. Change management tactics: celebrating wins, making tools exclusive, updating performance reviews

*Brought to you by:* Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lenny Figma Make—A prompt-to-code tool for making ideas real: https://www.figma.com/lenny/ Miro—The AI Innovation Workspace where teams discover, plan, and ship breakthrough products: https://miro.com/lenny *Transcript:* https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-linkedin-is-replacing-pms *My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers):* https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/180042347/my-takeaways-from-this-conversation *Where to find Tomer Cohen:*

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomercohen
• Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/building-one-with-tomer-cohen/id1726672498

*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 Tomer Cohen (04:42) The need for change in product development (11:52) The full-stack builder model explained (16:03) Implementing AI and automation in product development (19:17) Building and customizing AI tools (27:51) The timeline to launch (31:46) Pilot program and early results (37:04) Feedback from top talent (39:48) Change management and adoption (46:53) Encouraging people to play with AI tools (41:21) Performance reviews and full-stack builders (48:00) Challenges and specialization (50:05) Finding talent (52:46) Tips for implementing in your own company (56:43) Lightning round and final thoughts *Referenced:*

• How LinkedIn became interesting: The inside story | Tomer Cohen (CPO at LinkedIn): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-linkedin-became-interesting-tomer-cohen
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com
• Cursor: https://cursor.com
• The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can’t stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell
• Devin: https://devin.ai
• Figma: https://www.figma.com
• Microsoft Copilot: https://copilot.microsoft.com
• Windsurf: https://windsurf.com
• Building a magical AI code editor used by over 1 million developers in four months: The untold story of Windsurf | Varun Mohan (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-untold-story-of-windsurf-varun-mohan
• Lovable: https://lovable.dev
• Building Lovable: $10M ARR in 60 days with 15 people | Anton Osika (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-lovable-anton-osika
• APB program at LinkedIn: https://careers.linkedin.com/pathways-programs/entry-level/apb
• Naval Ravikant on X: https://x.com/naval
• One Song podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%A8-%D7%90%D7%97%D7%93-one-song/id1201883177
• Song Exploder podcast: https://songexploder.net
• Grok on Tesla: https://www.tesla.com/support/grok
• Reid Hoffman on X: https://x.com/reidhoffman

*Recommended books:*

• Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty: https://www.amazon.com/Why-Nations-Fail-Origins-Prosperity/dp/0307719227
• Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity: https://www.amazon.com/Outlive-Longevity-Peter-Attia-MD/dp/0593236599
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World: https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0143121359

_Production and marketing by https://penname.co/._ _For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com._ Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Tomer Cohen

  guest

• Lenny Rachitsky

  host

• Narrator

  other

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lenny's Podcast, featuring Tomer Cohen and Lenny Rachitsky, Tomer Cohen: How LinkedIn collapsed PM into full-stack pods explores linkedIn reboots product roles with AI-driven full stack builders LinkedIn’s CPO Tomer Cohen explains a radical shift from traditional, highly specialized product development to an AI-first “Full Stack Builder” (FSB) model. In response to rapidly changing job skills and rising organizational complexity, LinkedIn is collapsing processes and org structures so individual builders (and small pods) can take ideas from insight to launch, aided heavily by custom AI agents. They’ve sunset their APM program, introduced a new Associate Product Builder track, created an official Full Stack Builder title and ladder, and are re-architecting their platforms so AI can reason over LinkedIn’s systems. Cohen stresses that tools alone aren’t enough: cultural change, incentives, and deliberate change management are critical for companies that want to match the pace of technological change.

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