There's one variant of the HI-C worth adding: the fractional version.
I spent years as a Head/VP of eCommerce / CMO-level operator. Now I run fractionally across a handful of ecom businesses, and AI has quietly turned that into a HI-C role. I'm not managing a dev team; I parachute in with leadership-level context and ship the end-to-end work myself. Last month I replaced a client's $300/month SaaS subscription with a custom app I built in a 2 days. A year ago that's a dev hire or a vendor contract. Now it's just me. That is a small $$ example, but it happens all over the place, every day.
Your "average intelligence" framing is exactly why it works. I'm not a great developer and don't need to be; I'm a senior operator, and AI gets me to "average developer." Senior operator + average developer ships real things.
The fractional HI-C never gets stuck under an unequipped middle manager, because the engagement starts at the leadership level with context already ungated. That's the whole reason someone brings you in fractionally.
Would love to connect; this is the most precise articulation I've seen of a shift I'm already living.
"The first question on the first call? ‘How many people are you managing?’ I only had 3 at the time, and this was for a team of 15, so I was immediately disqualified. That was the #1 metric. Not output. Not budget managed. Not ability to solve the key problems. Just headcount. WHUT?"
So many people are good at a craft, get promoted away from it, and spend years missing the actual work. The "climbing something we hate" vs. "building something we love" framing names it perfectly. Calling the IC path a legitimate flex, not a retreat, is the permission a lot of people have been waiting for. Will be curious to see how this evolves more broadly.
Thanks for this Elena. This was truly one of the few optimistic takes on the future of work with AI I've read. Would love to know your thoughts on entry level roles with AI. Everything is so doom/gloom on AI eliminating entry level positions, I'm thinking though that the entry level-AI native brings something new to the table as a person who didn't know the old way of working (similar to how the AI native companies like lovable are able to work differently with no leftover baggage). Maybe the Hi-C is a mentor to the entry level person. Not sure, but love the idea of Hi-C being a real career path vs everyone trying to funnel into management.
Similar career trajectory and inflection point for me. I prev managed 3 PMs and PM intern and at one point, led 75% of our department product portfolio including managing a team of 30+ for exec visibility initiative.
My boss encouraged me (because I was good at it) to continue people management as I was already quickly rising through the ranks but I convinced them to carve out a "Product Consultant" role to enable me to continue doing what I love best - building, implementation over stakeholder politics, and building business and products. Also this allowed me to apply my skillsets to my own ventures and where I have the privilege to bring on mentors, advisors and employees.
Genuine thank you for sharing your journey Elena. It's scary to pivot to a HI IC track when it feels counterintuitive to traditional career progression. I wish I heard your story back then, it would have given me the encouragement.
And for others currently in this position, this is what they need to hear to take the plunge.
Great article Elena. Thats exactly what I did few years back - after scaling a team from 10 to 350, switched to IC role and Surf the Massive AI Waves (need to surf alone right?) and loving it. Great to see such alignment of thoughts.
This resonates so much with me. 🎯 After several years in leadership roles (which I loved), I've come to an important realization: what truly energizes me isn't the title or the org chart, it's solving hard problems and shipping impact.
I think we're going to see more of this. As organizations evolve, the "old ladder" (always climb higher in management) is being replaced by something more honest
This would need a lot of us to change in our heads how we perceive our careers, promotion, compensation, and a lot more. Great article, hugely in line with my thoughts lately!
This is a lovely piece Elena. I am going through a similar cross road - and your article gave me that aha moment. I wonder what it will take for the debate to move away from "How much Headcount are you managing"
Heck yeah! I went left my director job and went PT because I was only a manager. Recently i rejoined FT and now get to be a maker again! I am a HI-IC (with some management stuff) Thank you!
This is the new flex honestly. Management aspirations dont have the appeal anymore.
As someone who did the IC PM > VPP > IC (with some cofounding peppered in), think it comes down to staying tuned into what actually lights you up.
There's one variant of the HI-C worth adding: the fractional version.
I spent years as a Head/VP of eCommerce / CMO-level operator. Now I run fractionally across a handful of ecom businesses, and AI has quietly turned that into a HI-C role. I'm not managing a dev team; I parachute in with leadership-level context and ship the end-to-end work myself. Last month I replaced a client's $300/month SaaS subscription with a custom app I built in a 2 days. A year ago that's a dev hire or a vendor contract. Now it's just me. That is a small $$ example, but it happens all over the place, every day.
Your "average intelligence" framing is exactly why it works. I'm not a great developer and don't need to be; I'm a senior operator, and AI gets me to "average developer." Senior operator + average developer ships real things.
The fractional HI-C never gets stuck under an unequipped middle manager, because the engagement starts at the leadership level with context already ungated. That's the whole reason someone brings you in fractionally.
Would love to connect; this is the most precise articulation I've seen of a shift I'm already living.
"The first question on the first call? ‘How many people are you managing?’ I only had 3 at the time, and this was for a team of 15, so I was immediately disqualified. That was the #1 metric. Not output. Not budget managed. Not ability to solve the key problems. Just headcount. WHUT?"
This, so much this. It's crazy-making.
So many people are good at a craft, get promoted away from it, and spend years missing the actual work. The "climbing something we hate" vs. "building something we love" framing names it perfectly. Calling the IC path a legitimate flex, not a retreat, is the permission a lot of people have been waiting for. Will be curious to see how this evolves more broadly.
Thanks for this Elena. This was truly one of the few optimistic takes on the future of work with AI I've read. Would love to know your thoughts on entry level roles with AI. Everything is so doom/gloom on AI eliminating entry level positions, I'm thinking though that the entry level-AI native brings something new to the table as a person who didn't know the old way of working (similar to how the AI native companies like lovable are able to work differently with no leftover baggage). Maybe the Hi-C is a mentor to the entry level person. Not sure, but love the idea of Hi-C being a real career path vs everyone trying to funnel into management.
HI-C's could be the cure for the unaccountability epidemic corporates have been struggling with for a while now. ;) Great article, thanks for sharing!
Similar career trajectory and inflection point for me. I prev managed 3 PMs and PM intern and at one point, led 75% of our department product portfolio including managing a team of 30+ for exec visibility initiative.
My boss encouraged me (because I was good at it) to continue people management as I was already quickly rising through the ranks but I convinced them to carve out a "Product Consultant" role to enable me to continue doing what I love best - building, implementation over stakeholder politics, and building business and products. Also this allowed me to apply my skillsets to my own ventures and where I have the privilege to bring on mentors, advisors and employees.
Genuine thank you for sharing your journey Elena. It's scary to pivot to a HI IC track when it feels counterintuitive to traditional career progression. I wish I heard your story back then, it would have given me the encouragement.
And for others currently in this position, this is what they need to hear to take the plunge.
Great article Elena. Thats exactly what I did few years back - after scaling a team from 10 to 350, switched to IC role and Surf the Massive AI Waves (need to surf alone right?) and loving it. Great to see such alignment of thoughts.
This resonates so much with me. 🎯 After several years in leadership roles (which I loved), I've come to an important realization: what truly energizes me isn't the title or the org chart, it's solving hard problems and shipping impact.
I think we're going to see more of this. As organizations evolve, the "old ladder" (always climb higher in management) is being replaced by something more honest
This would need a lot of us to change in our heads how we perceive our careers, promotion, compensation, and a lot more. Great article, hugely in line with my thoughts lately!
This trend is incredible for mid and early career folks!
PS - Met Elena in person at SaaStr. She stayed for over an hour talking to everyone who had questions for her. Couldn't have met a nicer person!
This is a lovely piece Elena. I am going through a similar cross road - and your article gave me that aha moment. I wonder what it will take for the debate to move away from "How much Headcount are you managing"
Love the future of spending more time on energy maximizing activities 🙌
As someone who was flattened last summer after only recently starting to grow a team, this was healing ❤️🩹
Heck yeah! I went left my director job and went PT because I was only a manager. Recently i rejoined FT and now get to be a maker again! I am a HI-IC (with some management stuff) Thank you!