Main idea

The existence of an intermediary between the customer and the development team isn't the problem. The problem appears when that intermediary becomes the insulation layer: developers stop getting access to the need, on the grounds that they shouldn't have to understand the business, only to execute specifications.

The counter-model is observable in gestures rather than in org charts: developers who have been taking part directly in customer interviews for months, a Product Manager who pushes their first pull request on the main product. Nothing was removed — contact was reopened in both directions.

An interface role is therefore judged on the contact it allows, not on the volume of information it passes on. Passing it on well while remaining the only route through is still a degradation.

Layer added by "PM, Developers, and AI: Roles Are Blurring, Responsibilities Remain" (2026-08-01). The two gestures cited are not anecdotes: they describe an underlying movement. Developers who talk to customers understand the problems better, carry more ownership over their features and make local decisions more explicitly — they move up towards product. Reopened contact is therefore not a compensation for the interface role, it is what redistributes part of product judgment towards those who build.

Why it matters

This provides a simple test to put to an organization: when did a developer last speak to a customer, and without an intermediary?

And it guards against a competence effect: the better the intermediary passes things on, the less the isolation is noticed, and the more the team gets used to working on a representation of the need.

Nuances and limits

Opening up contact has a real cost: developers' time, customers' availability, and the risk of taking an isolated signal for a trend. Some organizations filter for good reasons — a customer in crisis, a negotiation under way, a confidentiality constraint.

And direct contact doesn't replace synthesis: hearing ten customers doesn't tell you what the market wants.

Open questions

• What frequency of direct contact is enough to prevent isolation, without turning the development team into a discovery team?