Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

chevron_right

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

whatshot 1524 snips

Dec 4, 2025

Guest

Tomer Cohen

Tomer Cohen, the chief product officer at LinkedIn, discusses his innovative Full Stack Builder program, which merges AI with product development. He reveals how traditional models have become inefficient and introduces a new approach to empower cross-functional teams. Tomer emphasizes the significance of culture, creativity, and specialized AI agents in building products faster. He also shares insights on adapting to the rapid shift in skills needed for the future workforce and provides valuable advice for companies looking to innovate in their product processes.

01:07:32

forum

Ask episode

web_stories

AI Snips

view_agenda

Chapters

menu_book

Books

auto_awesome

Transcript

info_circle

Episode notes

Rearchitect Platform For AI

Invest in platform re‑architecture so AI can reason over your systems instead of bolt‑on tools.
Customize third‑party models heavily; off‑the‑shelf agents rarely work on enterprise stacks.

Trust Agent Found Missed Holes

LinkedIn built a trust agent that flags vulnerabilities in specs and found holes the team missed.
The head of trust built the agent, showing domain experts should own their agents' design.

Orchestrate Agents To Collaborate

Build orchestrators so agents can collaborate rather than run sequentially.
Invest internal effort to customize connectors and make agents call each other.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Why product development needs reimagining

04:37 • 60sec

chevron_right

The Full Stack Builder vision

05:37 • 2min

chevron_right

How process complexity created organizational bloat

07:12 • 3min

chevron_right

Builders should focus on judgment and vision

09:48 • 2min

chevron_right

Pods and small teams replace large orgs

12:03 • 5min

chevron_right

Three pillars: platform, agents, culture

16:36 • 51sec

chevron_right

Re-architecting platforms for AI

17:27 • 2min

chevron_right

Building LinkedIn-specific agents like trust agent

19:28 • 4min

chevron_right

Customizing third-party tools is essential

23:35 • 2min

chevron_right

Specialized agents and an orchestrator approach

25:30 • 1min

chevron_right

Coding and maintenance agents already moving builds

26:44 • 1min

chevron_right

Pilot timeline and data curation challenges

Early pilot results and time savings

31:49 • 2min

chevron_right

Pod model, APB program, and hiring changes

33:47 • 3min

chevron_right

Top performers adopt AI fastest

37:11 • 3min

chevron_right

Change management: incentives and performance reviews

40:39 • 3min

chevron_right

Encouraging experimentation and visible examples

44:02 • 3min

chevron_right

Practical advice for companies starting FSB

46:41 • 9min

chevron_right

Don't wait — act and iterate

55:27 • 1min

chevron_right

Lightning round: books, podcasts, products

56:44 • 7min

chevron_right

Tomer reflects on leaving LinkedIn

• Mentioned in 64 episodes

Why Nations Fail

The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty

James A. Robinson

Daron Acemoglu

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson argue that the success or failure of nations is determined by their political and economic institutions. They present a comprehensive theory based on 15 years of research, using historical examples from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, the Soviet Union, and various other regions to demonstrate how inclusive institutions foster economic growth and prosperity, while extractive institutions lead to poverty and stagnation. The authors discuss critical questions such as China's economic growth, the future of the United States, and the most effective ways to help countries move from poverty to prosperity.

#37

• Mentioned in 277 episodes

Outlive

The Science and Art of Longevity

Peter Attia

Bill Gifford

In this book, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health. The book aims to replace the outdated medical framework with a personalized, proactive strategy for longevity, focusing on creating the best individual plan for long-term health. It covers topics such as the limitations of cholesterol tests, underdiagnosed liver conditions, the importance of exercise, and the integration of overall health with relational health.

#118

• Mentioned in 159 episodes

The Beginning of Infinity

Explanations That Transform the World

David Deutsch

In this groundbreaking book, David Deutsch argues that explanations have a fundamental place in the universe and that improving them is the basic regulating principle of all successful human endeavor. The book takes readers on a journey through various fields of science, history of civilization, art, moral values, and the theory of political institutions. Deutsch explains how we form new explanations and drop bad ones, and discusses the conditions under which progress, which he argues is potentially boundless, can and cannot happen. He emphasizes the importance of good explanations, which he defines as those that are 'hard to vary' and have 'reach', and argues that these explanations are central to the Enlightenment way of thinking and to all scientific and philosophical progress.

Tomer Cohen is the longtime chief product officer at LinkedIn, where he’s pioneering the Full Stack Builder program, a radical new approach to product development that fully embraces what AI makes possible. Under his leadership, LinkedIn has scrapped its traditional Associate Product Manager program and replaced it with an Associate Product Builder program that teaches coding, design, and PM skills together. He’s also introduced a formal “Full Stack Builder” title and career ladder, enabling anyone from any function to take products from idea to launch. In this conversation, Tomer explains why product development has become too complex at most companies and how LinkedIn is building an AI-powered product team that can move faster, adapt more quickly, and do more with less.

We discuss:

1. How 70% of the skills needed for jobs will change by 2030

2. The broken traditional model: organizational bloat slows features to a six-month cycle

3. The Full Stack Builder model

4. Three pillars of making FSB work: platform, agents, and culture (culture matters most)

5. Building specialized agents that critique ideas and find vulnerabilities

6. Why off-the-shelf AI tools never work on enterprise code without customization

7. Top performers adopt AI tools fastest, contrary to expectations about leveling effects

8. Change management tactics: celebrating wins, making tools exclusive, updating performance reviews

—

Brought to you by:

Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lenny

Figma Make—A prompt-to-code tool for making ideas real: https://www.figma.com/lenny/

Miro—The AI Innovation Workspace where teams discover, plan, and ship breakthrough products: https://miro.com/lenny

—

Transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-linkedin-is-replacing-pms

—

My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/180042347/my-takeaways-from-this-conversation

—

Where to find Tomer Cohen:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomercohen

• Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/building-one-with-tomer-cohen/id1726672498

—

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

—

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction to Tomer Cohen

(04:42) The need for change in product development

(11:52) The full-stack builder model explained

(16:03) Implementing AI and automation in product development

(19:17) Building and customizing AI tools

(27:51) The timeline to launch

(31:46) Pilot program and early results

(37:04) Feedback from top talent

(39:48) Change management and adoption

(46:53) Encouraging people to play with AI tools

(41:21) Performance reviews and full-stack builders

(48:00) Challenges and specialization

(50:05) Finding talent

(52:46) Tips for implementing in your own company

(56:43) Lightning round and final thoughts

—

Referenced:

• How LinkedIn became interesting: The inside story | Tomer Cohen (CPO at LinkedIn): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-linkedin-became-interesting-tomer-cohen

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com

• Cursor: https://cursor.com

• The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can’t stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell

• Devin: https://devin.ai

• Figma: https://www.figma.com

• Microsoft Copilot: https://copilot.microsoft.com

• Windsurf: https://windsurf.com

• Building a magical AI code editor used by over 1 million developers in four months: The untold story of Windsurf | Varun Mohan (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-untold-story-of-windsurf-varun-mohan

• Lovable: https://lovable.dev

• Building Lovable: $10M ARR in 60 days with 15 people | Anton Osika (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-lovable-anton-osika

• APB program at LinkedIn: https://careers.linkedin.com/pathways-programs/entry-level/apb

• Naval Ravikant on X: https://x.com/naval

• One Song podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%A8-%D7%90%D7%97%D7%93-one-song/id1201883177

• Song Exploder podcast: https://songexploder.net

• Grok on Tesla: https://www.tesla.com/support/grok

• Reid Hoffman on X: https://x.com/reidhoffman

—

Recommended books:

• Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty: https://www.amazon.com/Why-Nations-Fail-Origins-Prosperity/dp/0307719227

• Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity: https://www.amazon.com/Outlive-Longevity-Peter-Attia-MD/dp/0593236599

• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World: https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Infinity-Explanations-Transform-World/dp/0143121359

—

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

—

Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com

Home Top podcasts Popular guests Top books