Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Why Linkedin Is Turning Pms Into Ai Powered Full Stack Builders Tomer Cohen Linkedin Cpo

December 4, 2025

Key Takeaways Copied to clipboard!

  • The rapid pace of technological change, evidenced by 70% of job skills changing by 2030, necessitates a radical rethinking of traditional, complex product development processes. 
  • LinkedIn is pioneering the 'Full Stack Builder' model, aiming to empower builders to take ideas to market end-to-end by automating everything outside of core human traits like vision, empathy, communication, creativity, and judgment. 
  • Successful AI adoption requires significant upfront investment in platform customization and building specialized internal agents, alongside robust change management focused on incentives, celebrating wins, and updating performance reviews to reward AI fluency. 
  • Tomer Cohen recommends a trio of diverse books: *Why Nations Fail* (for understanding institutional success), *Outlive* (for personalized health optimization), and *The Beginning of Infinity* (for valuing clear explanations as the basis for progress). 
  • The concept of 'becoming is better than being' aligns with the Full Stack Builder (FSB) model, emphasizing continuous growth, iteration, and process over reaching a static state. 
  • Tomer Cohen is leaving LinkedIn after 14 years, feeling proud of the transformation he helped drive, and is excited to apply his bias for change to new problem sets where he can learn the most. 

Segments

Pace of Change and Need for Reimagining
Copied to clipboard!
(00:00:00)
  • Key Takeaway: The skills required for jobs will change by 70% by 2030, forcing a reimagining of product building principles.
  • Summary: By 2030, 70% of required job skills will change, making adaptation a necessity. Traditional product development processes at scale have become overly complex, leading to organizational bloat and slow feature cycles (e.g., six months). This complexity necessitates returning to first principles to reimagine what building means, embracing what AI unlocks through the Full Stack Builder model.
Introduction to Full Stack Builder
Copied to clipboard!
(00:01:22)
  • Key Takeaway: The Full Stack Builder Program enables anyone, regardless of function, to take products from idea to launch.
  • Summary: Lenny introduces Tomer Cohen and the Full Stack Builder Program, which replaces the APM program with an Associate Product Builder (APB) program teaching coding, design, and PM skills together. The goal is to enable small, nimble pods of builders to move fast by leveraging human plus AI teams. This model aims to create organizations that are more nimble, adaptive, and resilient to the accelerating pace of change.
Rationale for Rethinking Product Development
Copied to clipboard!
(00:05:23)
  • Key Takeaway: Organizational complexity, driven by micro-specialization across numerous review steps, has slowed down the product lifecycle.
  • Summary: Technology should empower meritocracy, but the time constant of change is outpacing organizational response time. At scale, simple steps like research expanded into 10-15 sources, adding layers of reviews (design, privacy, security), causing process and organizational complexity. This led to micro-specialization, bloating the process and slowing feature launches significantly.
FSB Model: Human vs. Automated Tasks
Copied to clipboard!
(00:12:40)
  • Key Takeaway: Builders should focus their time on vision, empathy, communication, creativity, and judgment, while everything else must be automated.
  • Summary: The Full Stack Builder model emphasizes a fluid human-machine interaction where builders focus on high-value traits like judgment and vision. Everything else in the product development lifecycle—research synthesis, design, coding, iteration—is targeted for automation. The organizational goal is to create small, nimble pods, similar to Navy SEALs, that can match the pace of external change.
Three Pillars of FSB Implementation
Copied to clipboard!
(00:17:09)
  • Key Takeaway: Making the FSB model work requires investment in Platform, Tools/Agents, and Culture, with platform re-architecture being a prerequisite.
  • Summary: Implementing FSB relies on three pillars: Platform (re-architecting core systems so AI can reason over them), Tools (building specialized agents), and Culture. Off-the-shelf AI tools rarely work immediately on enterprise codebases or design systems without significant customization and partnership investment. Specialized agents, like LinkedIn’s internal Trust Agent or Growth Agent, are necessary because they incorporate unique organizational context.
Custom Agents and Automation Success
Copied to clipboard!
(00:19:53)
  • Key Takeaway: Specialized, internally built agents, like the Trust Agent critiquing vulnerabilities, are proving highly effective where off-the-shelf tools fail.
  • Summary: The Trust Agent, built by the Head of Trust, successfully identified vulnerabilities in a spec that the team had missed, demonstrating the value of context-specific AI. The Maintenance Agent and QA Agent are already handling close to 50% of failed builds, showing massive impact in the ‘code to launch’ phase. Investment in the ‘idea to design’ phase is newer but crucial for leveraging AI early in the lifecycle.
Pilot Program Status and Early Results
Copied to clipboard!
(00:31:46)
  • Key Takeaway: Early adopters, particularly top talent, are seeing significant time savings and quality improvements, validating the model’s potential.
  • Summary: The pilot is showing benefits through increased experimentation volume and quality, with early adopters saving hours per week. Top talent is adopting the tools fastest, suggesting AI amplifies existing high performers who seek to continuously improve their craft. The success metrics focus on experimentation volume multiplied by quality, divided by the time to launch.
Change Management Tactics for Adoption
Copied to clipboard!
(00:39:41)
  • Key Takeaway: Adoption requires more than just providing tools; it demands intentional change management, including updating performance reviews to value AI agency.
  • Summary: Rolling out AI tools requires deliberate change management because most employees will not adopt them without incentives, motivation, and clear examples. Key tactics include updating performance reviews to explicitly value ‘AI agency and fluency’ and celebrating cross-functional wins, such as a user researcher transitioning successfully into a growth PM role using these new capabilities.
Formalizing the Full Stack Builder Role
Copied to clipboard!
(00:49:48)
  • Key Takeaway: LinkedIn has formally introduced a ‘Full Stack Builder’ title and career ladder, signaling a structural commitment to this new way of working.
  • Summary: The organization has a formal Full Stack Builder title and career ladder being gradually implemented across the company. While specialization still has a place, the expectation is shifting away from needing as many specialized roles as in the past. The new Associate Product Builder (APB) program will train incoming talent in coding, design, and PM skills to feed this new structure.
Advice for Implementing FSB
Copied to clipboard!
(00:52:51)
  • Key Takeaway: Leaders must be impatient about the goal (transformation) but patient and thoughtful about the implementation process, prioritizing platform investment and visibility.
  • Summary: Organizations should not wait for a formal reorg to start building differently; permission should be taken to begin experimenting immediately. Initial investment in the platform (code base readiness) and customizing tools is non-negotiable for success. Visibility across the organization, even when starting with small pods, is crucial to build momentum and demonstrate progress.
Final Advice and Lightning Round Start
Copied to clipboard!
(00:56:29)
  • Key Takeaway: Individuals should proactively seek out or initiate programs like the Full Stack Builder initiative if their current organization does not offer them.
  • Summary: Employees are encouraged to pursue opportunities at the cutting edge of future building practices, even if their current leadership has not formally announced such programs. This proactive approach ensures participation in advanced development models. The transition to the lightning round signals the end of the main discussion on organizational change.
Recommended Books Trio
Copied to clipboard!
(00:56:49)
  • Key Takeaway: Tomer Cohen’s recommended reading includes Why Nations Fail for understanding institutional drivers of success, Outlive for optimizing personal health via personalized medicine concepts, and The Beginning of Infinity for emphasizing clear explanations as prerequisites for breakthrough progress.
  • Summary: The first book, Why Nations Fail, analyzes national success based on inclusive versus extractive institutions, moving beyond simple cultural explanations. Outlive focuses on optimizing health through concepts like Peter Attia’s Medicine 3.0, which relates to future personalized medicine driven by AI. The Beginning of Infinity champions the idea that significant progress is only possible after achieving clear, scientific explanations for phenomena.
Favorite Media and Product Ideation
Copied to clipboard!
(00:59:42)
  • Key Takeaway: The Hebrew podcast One Song dissects the deep origins and history of popular songs, while the ideal product discovery involves articulating a friction-free AI companion integrated directly into daily tools like a car’s steering wheel.
  • Summary: The Hebrew podcast One Song provides deep dives into music, often revealing stories behind the lyrics or music that contradict initial assumptions. Cohen expressed a desire for a dedicated button on a steering wheel to invoke an AI assistant, eliminating the friction of using current voice modes or separate apps like ChatGPT while driving. Tesla’s implementation of Grok via a steering wheel button demonstrates this desired product vision is actively being realized.
Life Motto and Growth Mindset
Copied to clipboard!
(01:03:06)
  • Key Takeaway: The guiding principle of ‘becoming is better than being’ encapsulates the growth mindset, focusing on continuous evolution and skill acquisition rather than achieving a fixed state.
  • Summary: The concept of ‘becoming is better than being’ aligns with the FSB model by promoting constant progress and iteration. This mindset encourages individuals to measure success by their growth in knowledge and skills over time, such as comparing one’s current self to a future version. This focus avoids the negativity associated with FOMO by emphasizing continuous personal evolution.
Reflections on LinkedIn Departure
Copied to clipboard!
(01:04:15)
  • Key Takeaway: Cohen feels proud and grateful for his 14-year tenure at LinkedIn, which fundamentally shifted from a niche platform to a vital professional community, and he is now excited to pursue new problem sets where he can learn the most.
  • Summary: Cohen’s journey at LinkedIn began after hearing Reid Hoffman speak about professional online communities in 2008, aligning with his personal purpose. He acknowledges that the hardest learning moments often lead to the greatest growth, fostering deep care for the product, akin to raising a baby. He is now eager to leverage his experience and bias for change in new building opportunities over the next decade.