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Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders” | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)

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Video•Lenny's Newsletter •Dec 4, 2025
LinkedInCareer

Key takeaways

  • The rise of the “full stack builder” mindset.
  • The ideal future employee as a “Navy Seal”: cross-functional, mission-focused, and highly adaptable.

    • The “full stack builder” mindset

    A full stack builder can take an idea from inception all the way to market launch.

  • Less hand-off between siloed roles.
  • More ownership of the entire lifecycle: discovery, design, implementation, launch, and iteration.

    • The Growth Agent (LinkedIn’s internal AI tool)

    The Growth Agent is a specialized internal AI tool that critiques product ideas against business metrics and historical data.

  • Critiquing specs
    • Builders can “rock their spec” (run their product spec) through the agent.
    • The agent analyzes the idea and provides a critique based on historical performance.
  • Predicting impact
    • Instead of relying only on intuition, builders can see whether an idea is likely to succeed.
    • It compares the proposal against past experiments and established business metrics.

    • This shifts PMs toward being AI-augmented builders, not just coordinators.

    The “Navy Seal” employee model

    LinkedIn compares the ideal future employee to a Navy Seal.

  • Not hyper-specialized in one narrow function.
  • Cross-trained across multiple areas.
  • Operates in small, nimble pods.
  • Specializes in the mission itself, not just a single step in the process.

    • The durable human skills

    The skills that stay distinctly human and valuable:

  • Vision: crafting a compelling stance on the future.
  • Empathy: deeply understanding unmet customer needs.
  • Communication: rallying others around an idea.
  • Creativity: generating possibilities beyond the obvious.
  • Judgment: making high-quality decisions in complex, ambiguous situations.