The PM skill that matters in 2026 is taste at speed. Boris Cherny just showed everyone what that looks like.
His Claude Code team at Anthropic doesn’t write PRDs. They build hundreds of working prototypes before shipping a single feature. Boris personally ships 20-30 PRs a day running 5 parallel Claude instances. They built Cowork, a full product for non-engineers, in about 10 days.
Everyone in the replies is debating whether PRDs should die. Wrong conversation. The real question is what happens to the PM who can’t evaluate 15 prototypes and pick the 3 worth shipping.
Because here’s what changes when building costs near zero: the bottleneck moves from “can we build it” to “should we ship it.” PRDs existed because building was expensive and you needed sign-off before committing resources. When a prototype takes 45 minutes instead of 6 weeks, nobody needs a document to authorize exploration. They need someone who can look at working software and say “this one, not that one” in real time.
On the Claude Code team, PMs code. Data scientists code. User researchers code. Boris said productivity per engineer grew 70% even as Anthropic tripled in headcount. The coordination cost of translating specs into code disappears when everyone can build. And that changes what a PM is actually good for.
Boris said it himself: “There’s just no way we could have shipped this if we started with static mocks and Figma or if we started with a PRD.” The old process would have spent more calendar time documenting Cowork than his team spent building it.
This is the Claude Code team today. It will be most fast-moving teams within 18 months. The PMs who thrive will be the ones reviewing prototypes at 9am, killing 80% of them by noon, and shipping the survivors by end of week. Pattern matching across user research, technical feasibility, and business model simultaneously while staring at working software.
The PMs who struggle will be the ones still writing 15-page specs for features that could be prototyped, tested, and validated before the doc hits its first review cycle. Taste at speed is the new moat.
we're making @blocks smaller today. here's my note to the company.
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today we're making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company: we're reducing our organization by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. that means over 4,000 of you are being asked to leave or entering into consultation. i'll be straight about what's happening, why, and what it means for everyone.
first off, if you're one of the people affected, you'll receive your salary for 20 weeks + 1 week per year of tenure, equity vested through the end of may, 6 months of health care, your corporate devices, and $5,000 to put toward whatever you need to help you in this transition (if you’re outside the U.S. you’ll receive similar support but exact details are going to vary based on local requirements). i want you to know that before anything else. everyone will be notified today, whether you're being asked to leave, entering consultation, or asked to stay.
we're not making this decision because we're in trouble. our business is strong. gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and profitability is improving. but something has changed. we're already seeing that the intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. and that's accelerating rapidly.
i had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. i chose the latter. repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus, and to the trust that customers and shareholders place in our ability to lead. i'd rather take a hard, clear action now and build from a position we believe in than manage a slow reduction of people toward the same outcome. a smaller company also gives us the space to grow our business the right way, on our own terms, instead of constantly reacting to market pressures.
a decision at this scale carries risk. but so does standing still. we've done a full review to determine the roles and people we require to reliably grow the business from here, and we've pressure-tested those decisions from multiple angles. i accept that we may have gotten some of them wrong, and we've built in flexibility to account for that, and do the right thing for our customers.
we're not going to just disappear people from slack and email and pretend they were never here. communication channels will stay open through thursday evening (pacific) so everyone can say goodbye properly, and share whatever you wish. i'll also be hosting a live video session to thank everyone at 3:35pm pacific. i know doing it this way might feel awkward. i'd rather it feel awkward and human than efficient and cold.
to those of you leaving…i’m grateful for you, and i’m sorry to put you through this. you built what this company is today. that's a fact that i'll honor forever. this decision is not a reflection of what you contributed. you will be a great contributor to any organization going forward.
to those staying…i made this decision, and i'll own it. what i'm asking of you is to build with me. we're going to build this company with intelligence at the core of everything we do. how we work, how we create, how we serve our customers. our customers will feel this shift too, and we're going to help them navigate it: towards a future where they can build their own features directly, composed of our capabilities and served through our interfaces. that's what i'm focused on now. expect a note from me tomorrow.
jack
I am proud to announce that I have successfully completed the world’s first USA coast to coast fully autonomous drive!
I left the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles 2 days & 20 hours ago, and now have ended in Myrtle Beach, SC (2,732.4 miles)
This was accomplished with Tesla FSD V14.2 with absolutely 0 disengagements of any kind even for all parking including at Tesla Superchargers.
FSD 14.2 is insanely smooth. Drove 25 miles from the Atlanta suburbs to Buckhead and back. Zero interventions. Hurry mode is the mode to use. Weaving in and out of Atlanta traffic like an ATL native.
@wholemars Parking still needs work. It always parks in the disabled spot or takes up two spots for me. Makes it to my driveway but doesn’t go in the garage.
@farzyness He’s mentioned before that a phone is merely a pixel interface. I’m assuming it would be a new form factor that’s ai first. Connected. Low energy needs. Maybe an external neurolink inspired device
In just over a month of ownership with my new Model Y, Tesla has added so many features, over the air, for free.
- Grok
- Light Sync with Rave Cave
- Audio Profiles
- Onboarding Guide
- Adjustable Dashcam playback
- Supercharger site additional info as well as live activity + more
This is in just a month, most other brands don’t improve your car after you get it. The Tesla software and UI teams are truly unmatched.