Is front-end vs. back-end an antiquated way to structure engineering teams? With AI augmenting skills, a new model is emerging: the product engineer. This week, Andrew sits down with Lee Robinson, VP of Product at Vercel to crack open the future of the web. As a respected educator and voice in the webdev community ( check out his YouTube! ), Lee shares his unique perspective on building both cutting-edge tools and high-performing teams. As the VP of Product, Lee charts the evolution of developer roles and illustrates for us the rise of "product engineers" who own features end-to-end. Learn how AI tools are not just augmenting specialists but enabling designers, PMs, and founders to build "personal software." We also cover changing team dynamics and get Lee's advice on navigating the hiring process in the AI era, including: why personalization is key for candidates, how managers can spot authenticity (hint: AI-generated cover letters are obvious!) , and why building in public is critical for career growth today. Check out: Beyond Copilot: What’s Next for AI in Software Development Survey: Discover Your AI Collaboration Style Follow the hosts: Follow Ben Follow Andrew Follow today's guest(s): Website: leerob.com YouTube: @leerob LinkedIn: Lee Robinson Vercel: vercel.com Next.js: nextjs.org v0 by Vercel: v0.dev Referenced in today's show: This week in social, we noticed: AI OFFERS Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free. Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era. LEARN ABOUT LINEARB AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production. AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance. AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil. MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.
