The Product Engineers Podcast

If you're freelancing as a software engineer, you've probably noticed something a bit weird: your freelance pricing is now working against you. The faster you go, the less you bill. This episode is a conversation with Judith Bohlert — a freelance software engineer based in Germany, self-employed for 3 years, building greenfield MVPs and prototypes for early-stage startups — about how freelancing with AI tools affects the job, pricing, and the identity of an independent engineer.We get into the case for moving from time-seller to product engineer-consultant, why a productized service or a value-based offer is now the obvious response to AI freelancing economics, and why your personal brand — not your stack — is the only moat left when average code becomes a commodity.TIMESTAMP0:00 — How AI changed a Monday morning for a freelance dev4:15 — Tools that actually work: Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot5:41 — Repricing your work: hourly vs fixed vs productized vs value-based17:46 — Use AI to work less, not more: the case for the four-day week22:04 — Personal brand as the only moat when code is a commodity35:00 — The freelancer label is dying, the consultant role is rising38:54 — Advice if you want to start freelancing nowGUESTJudith Bohlert is a freelance software engineer based in Germany, with around 3 years of self-employment experience, focused on greenfield MVPs and prototypes for early-stage startups. She writes the low noise newsletter — a calmer take on working in tech, without hustle culture or the productivity-hack treadmill.Website:https://www.judithboehlert.com/Newsletter (low noise newsletter):https://www.lownoiseclub.com/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jboehlert/CONNECT WITH PRODUCT ENGINEERSHost: Peppe SillettiLinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/peppesilletti/Peppe's website:https://peppesilletti.ioProduct Engineers Community:https://discord.gg/4sMtRNSgU4Share this episode with a freelance developer friend who's billing hourly and starting to feel it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.productengineers.com

If you’re a product engineer, engineering manager or PM, we all know how it goes: you go through tons of meetings every day, and only when they end is when real work starts. PRDs, tickets, specs, follow-ups — all the artefact work nobody sees you do. And by the time you’re done, the next meeting is already starting.One of today’s guests has a name for it: the infinite workday.And that’s exactly the problem today’s guests set out to fix. Mark Barbir and Sanden Gocka are the founders of Earmark — an AI meeting note taker that turns live conversations into shippable work in real time. We get into how they actually use it day to day, how it helps product teams, where the new bottleneck of product work has moved, and what it looks like when an idea you just said out loud turns into a working prototype before the call ends.If you’ve been hunting for AI tools for product managers that go beyond generic summaries, I’m walking you through them, and you can decide if it’s worth trying.GUESTSMark Barbir and Sanden Gocka are the co-founders of Earmark. They previously worked together at Mindbody, a large enterprise SaaS company with a 400-person delivery organisation, and later crossed paths again at ProductPlan, where Sanden was an engineering manager and director. After years of watching product and engineering leaders drown in meetings and artefact work, they set out to build the tool they wished they had: an AI meeting assistant that generates the artefacts a conversation implies, in real time, while the meeting is still happening.Mark’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markbarbir/SandenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandengockaEarmark: https://www.tryearmark.comTIMESTAMPS00:00 The Invisible Second Shift: PM Meetings Problem01:49 The Infinite Workday: Why PMs Work After Hours07:49 Vision Pro Pivot: From Presentation Coach to Meeting AI11:35 Why Vision Pro Failed (and What They Learned)14:13 Engineering Translator Card: Understanding Technical Talk16:00 Specs, PRDs & Code in Real-Time During Meetings19:00 Make Me Look Smart: AI for Shy PMs28:32 PMs Are Now The New Bottleneck31:56 Dog Food Success: How Earmark Built Earmark40:09 How to Get Started with EarmarkREFERENCESCursor: https://cursor.comLinear: https://linear.appMacWhisper — the local speech-to-text tool Sanden used in his early hacked workflowAssemblyAI (referenced in the co-marketing case study story): https://www.assemblyai.comCONNECT WITH PRODUCT ENGINEERSHost: Peppe SillettiLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peppesilletti/Product Engineers:Website: https://productengineers.comDiscord Channel: https://discord.gg/4sMtRNSgU4Share this episode with a teammate who is still writing their PRDs at 10pm. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.productengineers.com