Pawel Huryn · 15 min read · AI & Product
I Don't Review the Code. I Review the Artifacts.
Read the original on productcompass.pm →
Product managers are shifting from writing specs to reviewing artifacts—the decisions, docs, and contracts that guide AI-driven products. Prototypes become the PM's primary deliverable, with a rich artifact layer ensuring context, alignment, and autonomy for agents, as building-first workflows reorder how we work and measure progress.
Key Takeaways
- The artifact layer (docs, architecture decisions, agent contracts) is becoming the PM's primary deliverable, not the code itself.
- Building-first prototyping, supported by artifacts, is often cheaper and faster than waiting for perfect agreements.
- Prototypes and artifacts signal a shift in large organizations, with PMs delivering tangible AI-enabled outputs early in the process.
- Automation and clear artifact-driven rules (e.g., changelog to version tags) help maintain alignment as projects evolve.
- Defining boundaries and autonomy for agents is essential to steer AI systems effectively while letting teams move quickly.
Excerpt
In the last two weeks I shipped three things to my GitHub : PM Brain , a second brain for product managers; Claude Usage for VS Code ; and Grok Build , another VS Code extension. In the same two weeks I wrote articles, ran experiments on agents, and taught a cohort of students building with Claude. More than 800 tests and eval checks across the three repos, from unit tests to LLM judges , nearly all green. I’m a PM, not an engineer, and I barely read the code. 💡 The uncomfortable part for PMs is that this isn’t…