IC work is the new career flex

Elena Verna argues that the old promotion ladder rewarded headcount and pushed strong individual contributors into management, even when their craft was the source of their value. She says AI changes that by letting one person do enough “average” work across functions to carry a project from idea to launch.

Reading notes

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• The old system used team size as a proxy for status and impact, even though output, budget, and problem solving mattered more.
• People who were good at their craft were often promoted into management and then steered away from the work they were best at.
• A high-impact individual contributor is someone who can deliver business value end to end on their own, usually after having been a manager, director, or VP.
• Verna describes her current role at Lovable as an IC role in which she runs campaigns, partnerships, growth optimizations, and product updates herself.
• She says building a prototype and shipping it alone can avoid the time and coordination a larger team would need.
• AI is framed as “average intelligence” that helps one person reach a baseline in design, marketing, or product work quickly enough to start.
• Faster building and testing lowers the cost of mistakes, which reduces the need for layers of approval and escalation.
• The model can create a positive loop: less coordination, fewer managers, more budget flowing to the people creating the most impact.
• For companies that want this structure, the main blockers are access to information and trust.
• Verna suggests inviting high-potential junior ICs to lead full-stack projects and recruiting leaders who want to return to IC work.
• She ends by saying management should be optional, not mandatory, and that people should be able to keep impact and compensation without needing more headcount.