Lessons from 3 months vibe coding as a non-technical PM

https://www.productleadership.io/p/i-spent-3-months-vibe-coding-with

by sergioschuler • 12 months ago

1 3 12 months ago

I spent 3 months "vibe coding" with Lovable as a non-technical PM.

It's both magical and infuriating.

My conclusion is that non-technical people CAN build simple prototypes, websites and internal tools, but would struggle to build production-grade products without any technical expertise. Think of current AI as a junior dev with outstanding syntax knowledge but terrible judgment.

Here are some things I learned in the last 3 months that seem to work well:

1. Treat it like a software development intern (write PRDs, user stories, acceptance criteria)

2. Work in tiny increments—big changes confuse the hell out of it

3. Use the "Uncle Bob" persona for cleaner architecture

4. Always refactor when prompted (but test before/after)

5. Don't be afraid to revert and start over—code is now the cheap part

Insight about the future of product: When writing code becomes cheap, many experiments that would've been discarded can now be released. We're transitioning from discovery-heavy processes to rapid iteration in production. Engineers won't vanish—they'll take on more PM responsibilities. And PMs/UXers need to learn some engineering to ship independently too.

The best advice I can give you: if you're a product person still sitting on the sidelines, what are you waiting for? Start building.

beanjuiceII• 12 months ago

code is the cheap part start over? this seem naive unless we're talking todo level, surface level stuff

sergioschuler2• 12 months ago

Yes, start over the PART where the AI got stuck. Not the whole code base from scratch, for sure.

Lessons from 3 months vibe coding as a non-technical PM

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