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.
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.
I like this trend conceptually. The problems I run into, at least in working with traditional companies that are looking to move to AI-enabled (and are far from AI-first), is that those Hi-ICs still get managers, and the managers are entirely un-equipped to deal with it, making both their lives miserable.
So what to do:
-Hi-IC doesn't get paid more and leaves the incompetent managers, and hopefully joins an AI-first company where they can thrive?
-Traditional managers' SDLC gets all broken, they're still mired in bureaucracy that they're spending 60% of their time on, and don't get curious about how to leverage AI to get out of that bull sh*t but necessary work.
My take on the need for Super Leaders to adapt, step up, and manage+recruit HI-ICs, plus build the AI systems to get themselves out of the weight of the bureaucracy work so they can focus on the E2E product+marketing to move the business forward.
This is the new flex honestly. Management aspirations dont have the appeal anymore.
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.
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.
banger.
I like this trend conceptually. The problems I run into, at least in working with traditional companies that are looking to move to AI-enabled (and are far from AI-first), is that those Hi-ICs still get managers, and the managers are entirely un-equipped to deal with it, making both their lives miserable.
So what to do:
-Hi-IC doesn't get paid more and leaves the incompetent managers, and hopefully joins an AI-first company where they can thrive?
-Traditional managers' SDLC gets all broken, they're still mired in bureaucracy that they're spending 60% of their time on, and don't get curious about how to leverage AI to get out of that bull sh*t but necessary work.
My take on the need for Super Leaders to adapt, step up, and manage+recruit HI-ICs, plus build the AI systems to get themselves out of the weight of the bureaucracy work so they can focus on the E2E product+marketing to move the business forward.
Curious to hear your thoughts
https://elenasletters.substack.com/p/super-leader