The PRD is dead, the era of super individuals has arrived (Part 1)

Before the emergence of Claude, the software development process was typically as follows:

Propose an idea → Product Manager writes PRD → Designer creates UI → Technicians write code based on UI

The reason for this is that writing code is very expensive (time + manpower)

Thus, the software industry has formed a professional division of labor:

Product: Understand requirements

Design: Create interfaces

Engineering: Write code

And the PRD is the core of communication among these roles.

However, with the development of the AI era, Vibe Coding can directly turn ideas into functional software.

This means: the PRD is dead

Because now: Idea → Prompt → AI → Product prototype

The cost of implementation has been greatly reduced.

In the past, the biggest bottleneck was: writing code

Now, the biggest bottleneck has become: Review

Which means: determining whether the code is correct, determining whether the product is reasonable, determining whether the system is usable

The PRD has not truly disappeared; although the traditional PRD is dead, requirement descriptions are still very important.

The future form of the PRD may become: Prompt, Prompt context, Prompt architecture.

In the future, everyone must become a “Generalist.”

This means that regardless of whether you are currently a PM, designer, code engineer, or founder,

You need to become a Generalist

With capabilities in: Product Sense, Engineering Sense, Design Sense

Because nowadays, communication costs have become the largest cost.

A Generalist + AI = the original three-person team (Product Manager + Development + Design)

Super individuals are emerging. And these people have always been valuable.

Recently, a senior student created a project in 10 days and received 30 million investment, and the news went viral. His experience and insights are documented here👇: "In 3 months, from the micro-influencer BettaFish open-source project exploding to receiving 30 million investment, I experienced the super individual era brought by Vibe Coding". Just search for it.

In the future, Coding Agent will become a fundamental skill.

And the real core capability will become: systems thinking.

Because now the execution costs have dropped significantly, you just need to tell the AI what kind of product you want to make, and it will quickly help you generate a prototype.