Will Jones
Image credit: Pearce Dolan
Product managers are responsible for setting product direction and keeping teams aligned, but the value of the role has come into question in recent years. As more and more startups turn to AI to automate workflows and adopt leaner team structures to reduce costs, industry professionals are asking whether product managers are still necessary in today’s modern landscape.
But in the right setting and with the right team, product managers can be a real game-changer, helping teams establish priorities, stay focused, make smarter decisions, and move quickly without losing sight of the bigger picture.
Pearce Dolan has worked as a product manager at companies like Revolut and Deel, and is a strong advocate for the importance of the role. He was a key figure in forming the product development strategies, shaping the internal culture, and launching important features that became essential to the product experience at both companies — laying the groundwork for their rapid growth into two of the fastest-scaling startups in tech.
Read on to learn more about Pearce Dolan’s work and how his career proves product management remains of vital importance for all companies.
Pearce Dolan: His Path to Product Leadership
Born in Yorkshire and raised between Hong Kong, Dubai, and the U.K., Pearce Dolan was drawn to technology from an early age. He spent his days flipping through tech magazines, fascinated by why certain products resonated with people: “my ambition was to one day work for technology companies and help set strategies on how to make the best products in the world.”
This early interest led him to studying Computer Science with Management at King’s College London, where he built a strong technical foundation and gained valuable insight into how products take shape beyond the code. Although his initial aim was to become an engineer, Dolan found himself more curious about the decisions behind the interface.
While working as a Sales Specialist at an Apple Store in London, he watched customers interact with technology in real-time and noticed their habits, frustrations, and expectations. He got a first-hand look at how design decisions shape the user experience — marking the beginning of his path toward product management.
Image credit: Pearce Dolan
Bringing Structure to Revolut
Dolan’s first official product management role was at Revolut, a finance app startup that was still figuring out how to shape its product function when he joined them. Engineers were leading management roles with little formal training, and there was no structured approach to product development — a common challenge for companies during periods of scaling.
As Revolut’s first dedicated Product Manager, Dolan helped bring order to the company’s development process, introducing key practices like structured sprint cycles, A/B testing, and user research protocols. These practices enabled teams to test ideas quickly, refine features based on real user feedback, and ship them with confidence.
He also led the development of several key features that became integral to the Revolut experience, including the ability to split bills, send payments via QR code or username, and even attach a GIF to a payment — a unique feature that helped Revolut stand out from other fintech apps.
By the time Dolan left, Revolut had evolved into a $10 billion company with a more focused and scalable product culture — a shift that reflected how effective product leadership can turn early-stage challenges into long-term momentum.
Building and Scaling Product at Deel
After his success at Revolut, Dolan decided to take on a new challenge at Deel, a platform that helps businesses manage payroll, compliance, and HR for global teams. He joined as the 20th employee and the only product hire, tasked not just with shipping features, but with building an entire product function from scratch.
One of the first major contributions in his new role was the launch of Deel’s Contractor of Record, which allowed companies to legally hire and onboard international contractors through Deel. This service laid the groundwork for an expanded suite of compliance tools, including Employer of Record (EOR), HRIS (Human Resources Information System), and Immigration services. Together, these offerings replaced fragmented workflows with a unified platform built to meet clients’ end-to-end needs.
Dolan also played a key role in helping Deel incorporate AI into its operations, leading the development of tools that could read complex regulatory documents, auto-generate compliance contracts, and provide real-time guidance to users. These were crucial in helping Deel’s clients streamline administrative tasks and ensure legal compliance, and also enabled the company to scale efficiently as its customer base grew.
Internally, Dolan built a product culture centered on speed, experimentation, and long-term scalability. He implemented decision-making frameworks and prioritization processes that enabled teams to move quickly while staying aligned on key objectives, ensuring the company could sustain its hypergrowth.
These foundations scaled the product organization from a one-person team to more than 1,000 people across product, design, and engineering, and were instrumental in making Deel one of the fastest-growing startups in history — showing how strong product leadership can successfully drive both scale and direction.
Proving the Continued Relevance of Product Management
As Head of Product at Deel since 2020, Dolan has seen first-hand how perceptions of product management are shifting. As both startups and enterprises increasingly rely on AI to automate repetitive tasks and process complex data, many professionals are questioning the need for product managers and opting to work with smaller, more specialized technical teams.
“This current shift toward automation will probably cause a big shake-up across many industries,” he explains. “Even in places like Deel, there will be new leaders, or perhaps existing leaders will extend their lead and change their priorities.”
Even so, Dolan argues that the role of a product manager remains essential. The real challenge, he believes, isn’t just reacting to change — it’s leading through it: “the right product leader will guide and implement an AI integration strategy that saves operational costs, improves company efficiency, and prioritizes user experience, all while allowing the product to scale and grow even further.”
From introducing core product practices at Revolut to building and scaling a global product function at Deel, Pearce Dolan has consistently shown how product management is crucial to set up the protocols, teams, and tools that allow companies to grow fast without losing direction.
His track record shows that product management is an essential part of the future of tech.