Surge AI的CEO Edwin Chen在一次播客中表示，在初创公司早期团队中，产品经理和数据科学家并非必需角色。他认为，数据科学家擅长产品优化，但创业初期更需要颠覆性的变革而非微小改进。而产品经理的作用在工程师能够独立驱动产品方向时才变得重要。Chen的观点引发了关于产品经理在初创公司中价值的广泛讨论，尤其是在AI技术快速发展的背景下，一些公司如微软、Airbnb和Snap也在重新评估这一角色的必要性，但也有人认为AI将增强产品经理的作用。

📊 **产品经理和数据科学家并非初创公司早期团队的必需角色**：Surge AI的CEO Edwin Chen认为，在公司成立初期，这两类岗位对公司发展贡献有限。他指出，数据科学家更适合在产品成熟后进行细节优化，而初创公司需要的是颠覆性的10倍或100倍增长，而非细微的2%-5%的改进。同时，他认为产品经理的角色在工程师能够独立主导产品方向之前并不必要。

🚀 **“创始人模式”的兴起与产品决策权**：Y Combinator联合创始人Paul Graham提出的“创始人模式”概念，以及Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky的实践，促使一些领导者重新思考是否应将产品决策权完全委托给产品经理。Chesky在2023年将产品管理与营销合并，Snap也裁减了部分产品经理以加速决策，这反映了初创公司在快速变化的市场中对效率和灵活性的追求。

💡 **AI时代产品经理角色的争议与演变**：尽管Chen对早期产品经理持保留态度，但也有观点认为，在AI时代，产品经理的作用将更加重要。微软首席技术官Kevin Scott就曾表示，产品经理在建立AI代理的“反馈循环”方面发挥着关键作用。这表明，随着AI技术的发展，产品经理的职责和价值可能正在经历重塑和演变。

🤔 **行业内部对产品经理价值的持续辩论**：关于产品经理在初创公司中的价值，行业内一直存在争议。他们常被视为产品的“迷你CEO”，在工程师、销售、客服等部门之间起到桥梁作用。然而，部分科技从业者认为产品经理增加的价值有限，使得这一角色成为一个两极分化的议题，不同公司根据自身发展阶段和战略选择对产品经理的配置进行调整。

Surge AI's CEO says two roles don't belong on a founding team: Product managers and data scientists.As a former data scientist, Edwin Chen said the role adds little value in a company's early days.Product managers don't make sense early on — founders and engineers should own the product, he said.

Product managers and data scientists have no place on a founding team, said Surge AI's CEO, Edwin Chen.

Chen said on an episode of "No Priors Podcast" published Thursday that he often hears early-stage founders list the roles among their first five to 10 hires. "This is just wild to me," he said.

Chen, who used to be a data scientist himself, said he would not hire data scientists early.

"Data scientists are great when you want to optimize your product by 2% or 5%, but that's definitely not what you want to be doing when you start a company," he said.

"You're trying to swing for 10x or 100x changes, not worrying and nitpicking about small percentage points that are just noise anyway."

The founder of the data labeling startup also said product managers don't make sense early on. He said that the role becomes useful only once engineers no longer have the time or capacity to drive product direction.

"Your engineer should be hands-on. They should be having great ideas as well," he said.

"Product managers are great when your company gets big enough, but at the beginning, you should be thinking about yourself, about what product you want to build," he added.

Surge AI and Chen did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The great product manager debate

Chen's comments come as the debate continues in the startup world over the role of product managers.

Product managers have been referred to — both affectionately and critically — as "mini-CEOs" of the products they oversee. They act as a bridge among engineers, sales teams, customer service, and other departments, ensuring that products align with user needs.

But the role has become a polarizing one, with some tech workers arguing that product managers add little value, Business Insider's Amanda Hoover reported in November.

Microsoft wants to increase the number of engineers relative to product or program managers, BI's Ashley Stewart reported in March. Other companies like Airbnb and Snap are rethinking the need for product managers.

The call for executives to go "founder mode" — a concept coined by the Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham and touted by Airbnb's CEO, Brian Chesky — has some leaders questioning whether they should delegate product decisions to product managers.

In 2023, Chesky merged product management with marketing, and Snap told The Information in the same year that it laid off 20 product managers to help speed up the company's decision-making.

Others believe product managers' influence will only grow in the age of AI.

Microsoft's chief technology officer, Kevin Scott, said on an episode of the "Twenty Minute VC" podcast published in March that product managers play a crucial role in setting up "feedback loops" to make AI agents better.