Um, new 2026 trend I didn’t exactly see coming: IC colleagues publicly trolling their PMs with features they want to ship 😬

(Not to mention that I’m supposed to be on vacation right now 🤪)

Just kidding: this is totally in @Buffer’s wheelhouse as AI-enabled team of creators! If we can all ship, and we believe we create a better product & brand by sharing our work publicly, why not?

Let’s scrutinize that for a second. All our roles are blurring, but there still needs to be someone accountable for what ships and whether it has impact.

As one of the teammates who plays that role, I am put on the spot every time one of my colleagues trolls me with a feature idea. This isn’t really any different than a user suggesting a change publicly - the main difference is that my colleague can ship.

We typically move discussions around those suggestions to an internal place, like Slack or Linear. The PM is usually the contrarian, pushed to say no. That’s typically an anxious position to be in, and even more so when the discourse is public.

What if you are publicly trolled?
What if your experience is called into question?

But I think this is an anxiety we can name and get over. Public discourse about how to improve a product only brings more folks into the fold, especially on a place like LinkedIn where the discourse is a bit more…wholesome than other networks 😅 and with good faith, these public discussions (or entire ready-to-ship features) can make products stronger, even if the outcome is the PM publicly saying no OR being publicly convinced of a yes. There is now a conversation & explanation in which the public is helping to shape the decision.

Not every company will act this way, nor should all companies. But maybe more should!

I want to commit to having more discussions like this here in public, including with builders building on Buffer’s public API. Healthy pressure to keep making our own product better.

By the way, @Michael Eckstein & @Pierre Le Poulain - you’re on 😜