It’s probably not a good idea to write an article after having only slept for 6 hours in the past 48 hours. I just flew across the globe to spend Christmas with my family back home. Officially, I’m now on holiday, but I still have a lot of work to do, including interviewing PM candidates and writing/rewriting 2025 strategies. It’s currently 4am and jetlag + high dopamine levels from interviewing a good candidate are keeping me awake. My brain keeps replaying the interview and the stuff I wrote for the strategy — and somehow it’s tricking me into thinking that writing it into an article is a good idea.

Want to know what’s on my mind?

• I interviewed for this Chief Product Officer job 1.5 years ago. During the interview, I was asked to present how I would structure the team and the strategy if I had $x annual budget. Earlier today, I crafted a plan to deliver 200% improvement in 2025 with a third of the $ budget.
• “The root of suffering is attachment” — Buddha. Yes, a lot of things have drastically changed in the past few years. Tech winter sucks. But you know who’ll die in this winter? The stupid mouse who keeps coming back to where it has found cheese before, and complains, “Who moved my cheese?”
• It’s a tough job market for sure, but good people are still getting headhunted, hired, promoted. You can still stand out, and I’ll tell you how.

Without further ado, here goes:

1. Whatever your role is, having good business acumen is non-negotiable.

You saw my note about delivering 2x growth with a fraction of the budget earlier. I simply can’t waste my time with a team member that doesn’t get that.
In my current role, I’m also heading up Design and Engineering. If you’re in those roles, you definitely should still advocate for the best standards in your craft, but you need to show awareness and empathy for what the company is trying to achieve commercially, and are able to make thoughtful tradeoffs in delivering results.

2. The more ‘full-stack’ you are, the better your chances are

This applies more to smaller companies, but as headcounts are being reduced, people who can wear multiple hats are more likely to get hired/promoted. I’m talking about:

• PMs who can analyze data and conduct user research
• Designers with commercial awareness and technical understanding
• Engineers with UX and business mindsets

I know there’s been an ongoing debate that “PMs are trying to take UX’s jobs.” Well, I’ll tell you now: A UX-er with strategic mindset has an equal chance of taking a PM’s job as well. A good Tech Lead can do a PM job.

It’s not about taking anyone’s job. It’s about ensuring that team spends more time working together to achieve results and less time debating about whose perspective is more important.

3. Use AI every day

Not because AI is amazing at everything, but because 1) it’s great at many things, so you’re definitely missing out if you’re not using it at all, and 2) you need to use it a lot so you understand how it works and its limitations.

Resisting using it will only make you look like a grandpa who’s resisting tech. Being overly reliant on it will make you gullible like a grandpa who believes he just met a gorgeous loving woman who unfortunately can’t come visit unless he sends her $3,000. A bit ageist I know — I loved my (late) grandpa very much but you definitely don’t want to be compared to him when it comes to tech.

I know there’s so much noise around AI and it’s exhausting. It’s going to take your job, it’s *not* going to take your job, ha-ha, look at this stupid chat, AI can’t even count how many R’s there are in the word ‘strawberry’, AI is a bubble and Sam Altman is the next Elon Musk…

It’s easier to keep up by actively participating in it:

• Use the obvious ones like ChatGPT for common tasks.
• When faced with a new task, try to find an AI solution for it. It’s likely that an AI solution exists, and it’s also likely that it doesn’t produce the results that you want. Now you learn what’s there and its limitations.
• Tinker with building your own AI assistant. During this Christmas break, I’m planning to build a workflow that takes the content of the newsletters I subscribe to and use it to train my own expert coach. I can’t read every single newsletter I subscribe to, but I want to be able to query it when I need it.

4. Spend more time off-screen and meet real people in tech

Job hunting is 100x more difficult if you are cold-applying through a recruitment portal. Internal referrals usually guarantee you at least a CV review, if not a screening interview.

But nobody likes people who clearly want something from them, so you have to start building your network and relationships before you need them. Come to meetups and events. Offer help. Offer introductions.

Let me tell you a networking hack I accidentally learned by doing: If you hate networking, organize one. Yes, you read that right.

It’s actually super easy to join a community and offer to organize the next meetup. When you organize instead of just attending a meetup,

• You feel less awkward because you have a job to do. You greet people, you ensure food/drinks are distributed, you talk to the venue staff. Whenever a conversation feels stale, it’s easy to make an excuse to do something.
• People come to you to thank you for organizing, so you get to meet more people without much effort.
• You gain the attention of the community owner, which is usually senior or influential people in your craft.

5. Shit might still happen — don’t take it personally

Rejections, layoffs, delayed promotions are statistically probable these days. It’s hard to swallow, especially if you attach your identity to your work and achievements like I do.

I know it’s easier said than done, but taking it less personally helps. I joined Meta in 2016 and had an ‘OG’ team of 6 brilliant people. Of these 6, 5 of us have experienced layoffs or losing our job because the company went under administration.

Find joy outside of work. Build side projects. Mentor and help other people. A wise man said, a bird sitting on a branch isn’t afraid of the branch falling, because it’s confident in its ability to fly.

It’s now 6:30am where I am and I still haven’t slept, so I’ll end with this: surviving 2025 in tech — whether as a PM or any role — requires adaptability, empathy, and an openness to constant learning. The world is changing fast, and while we can’t predict every twist and turn, we can prepare ourselves by staying curious, being kind to ourselves and others, and leaning into both challenges and opportunities.

At the end of the day, success isn’t just about outsmarting the competition; it’s about evolving with the times and creating value for the people around us. So, take a deep breath, learn what you can, and remember: you’ve got this. Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for me to finally get some sleep.

Written by Debbie Widjaja