"Hire multidisciplinary makers, not traditional PMs -- but you'll probably need PMs eventually"
Evidence from the Archive
The Browser Company
The Browser Company tracks one metric (D5/D7) rather than building elaborate PM-driven metric frameworks
Rebecca at The Browser Company: PhD from MIT in behavioral psychology, former software engineer at Stripe, now effectively PMing the multiplayer team -- came through a maker path, not a PM path
Josh Miller is the CEO of The Browser Company, maker of Arc, which grew rapidly by tracking a single metric -- D5/D7, how many people use Arc at least five days a week -- and built its team around multidisciplinary makers rather than traditional role specialization. Their core argument: Hire multidisciplinary makers, not traditional PMs -- but accept that PMs become necessary at scale. The goal is not to avoid PMs forever but to delay the role until coordination demands force it, and when you do hire, seek people who think of themselves as makers first.
The evidence is specific: Rebecca at The Browser Company: PhD from MIT in behavioral psychology, former software engineer at Stripe, now effectively PMing the multiplayer team -- came through a maker path, not a PM path. Furthermore, evan Spiegel at Snapchat swore they would never hire PMs and insisted everyone be a designer -- Snapchat now has many PMs. The Browser Company tracks one metric (D5/D7) rather than building elaborate PM-driven metric frameworks.
In Josh Miller's own words: "It's not that we don't hire PMs, but we want to hire people who have a multidisciplinary approach and view things as, 'I like to make things. Tell me how I contribute to making it.'" (Describing the type of person The Browser Company hires instead of traditional PMs.)