Faris Aziz

Faris AzizMay 26, 2026

I love being an IC. I lead a team, but the work I get most energy from is still the IC work. Writing the strategy. Sitting with the data. Talking to customers. Shaping the experiment myself. For years the industry told us that was junior work. Real seniority meant stepping back. That’s changing. AI has collapsed the distance between thinking and shipping. A senior PM with taste and the right tools can have the impact of a small team. Not just at OpenAI or Anthropic where principal ICs out-earn VPs. Everywhere. The super IC track isn’t a big tech curiosity anymore. It’s becoming a real career path. And the people who quietly preferred the craft are about to have their moment.

Faris AzizApr 15, 2026

I’ve spent the last year trying to make myself redundant. At least part of myself. The stuff that used to eat half my week: first drafts, data pulls, research, spec writing. I’ve compressed it into a fraction of the time using AI and vibe coding tools. But here’s the more honest thing I want to say. Being a hands-on product leader has held me back. Not always. But enough. When you’re close to the build, it’s hard to zoom out. “Strategic enough?” is a question that followed me around more than I’d like to admit. The irony is that now, in 2026, being hands-on is exactly what people want. Not instead of strategic thinking. Alongside it. I never actually wanted to step away from the build. I just assumed that at some point, seniority would demand it. That to be taken seriously at a strategic level, you had to let go of the hands-on stuff. Turns out that assumption is becoming outdated fast. Building is faster and cheaper than it’s ever been. Execution takes less of me. And the space that frees up? I’m using it to actually think. About strategy, about customers, about where a product needs to go. I used to think hands-on and strategic were two modes you had to choose between. Looks like the tools had other ideas.

Faris AzizMay 28, 2026

The “AI will replace jobs” panic is a fallacy. 100 employees plus AI ship more than 100 employees did last year. Same people. More output. So why cut headcount? If you do, you’re doing less than you should. Your competitors who kept their people and added AI are pulling away. Companies cutting jobs and blaming AI are cutting for other reasons. Bad bets. Restructures they wanted anyway. AI is the cover story. The real shift is simpler. The bar goes up. Everyone competes at a higher level. Get good at the tools. Do the work that always mattered. Jobs aren’t going anywhere. The bar is just moving.