It's tongue-in-cheek as a sibling commenter is saying, but I'd argue it's also quite literal. She was running the Product Design team at SO, assumably managing

It's tongue-in-cheek as a sibling commenter is saying, but I'd argue it's also quite literal. She was running the Product Design team at SO, assumably managing people, and went on to work as a staff software developer. I'm not making a judgement on the worth of the different jobs - I've been a manager, I'm now both a designer and a developer, and I personally prefer the latter above all else - and I don't think she is either. Maybe she even makes close to the same amount of money, who knows. It's just that by most organizational standards it is a demotion. At any rate, I don't see any of it derogatory for neither developers nor product design managers.