Keep pulling the thread on James Hawkins.
PostHog has repositioned its company strategy to provide "self-driving software."
PostHog's "self-driving software" is designed to automatically ship pull requests to fix simple engineering tasks identified from user data.
PostHog believes an AI system can be built that is superior to a human product manager for deciding what features to build.
PostHog decided to pivot to an AI-first strategy approximately 1.5 years ago.
To execute its AI pivot, PostHog's co-founders divided responsibilities, with Tim Glaser managing core business operations while James Hawkins focused exclusively on leading AI product development.
PostHog launched the first version of its "self-driving software" into production in the week prior to the interview.
PostHog recently shipped a desktop product designed to capture the intent behind product development.
PostHog's recently launched support product has gained traction with approximately 1,100 companies using it.
At PostHog, the role of the support team is shifting from directly solving tickets to managing and improving the AI agents that handle support.
A significant portion of PostHog's own pull requests are now generated by its AI system.
The use of AI-generated pull requests at PostHog allows its developers to spend more time on large, strategic features and new products.
PostHog found it has become easier to hire high-quality talent as the company's ambition has increased.