Leading product in enterprise is different. The work was always three things: finding the problem, shaping the experience, making it work. We split them across three people not because the work divided cleanly, but because no one could master all three at once.

So we built the handoffs. The spec exists so a PM can pass intent to a designer. The annotated mock exists so a designer can pass perfect pixels to an engineer. Every artifact in the middle is coordination tax, and in enterprise that tax is brutal, paid across teams, layers, and quarters. Each pass loses a little of the original thinking.

AI is starting to change that math. Increasingly, one person can hold more of the problem, the design, and the build in the same mind, where the pieces sharpen each other instead of leaking across the seams. The handoff was a workaround for a constraint that’s easing. It’s starting to look like the slowest thing in the room.