“My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
I find myself returning to quote, time and time again. AI is moving so fast. How can you possibly hope to keep up?
The Builder’s Dilemma
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“If you build it, you must maintain it” - I think this is my quote (Inspired by Wayne’s World “If you book them, they will come”).
Building a product has inertia. The sunk cost fallacy exists. Once something exists, once people pay for it (or god forbid you go freemium and they don’t), it is tangible. Changing it can be painful.
This represents danger. AI enables building faster than ever, but obtaining customer feedback is still a slow process. It’s very easy to slip out of balance - then you end up building and maintaining in an unprofitable direction.
Furthermore, AI is biased towards being additive. It’s honestly hard to get agents to do broad removals well.
This adds up to a multifaceted danger. It’s easier than ever to overbuild and overspend, while underserving your customer. It’s also easier than ever to slip out of product market fit.
Stay Limber To Pivot
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So what is to be done? The market will make or break you. If you slip too far out of product market fit, you die.
First, focus on fundamentals. An effective SDLC means that if you need to pursue a new product, that option is available to you.
Second, focus on the customer. The customer is God. You serve at their leisure. Learn them, love them, live with them. Don’t focus on what you want to build, or what you have built. Continue evaluating how your offering slots into their needs.
Third, experiment. If you have a core, profitable business, don’t throw it away. But make some small side bets. Spin up a skunkworks division. Do hackathons, and actually ship the results into production. Admit that you might be wrong.
Change is the Only Constant
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Change comes for us all. I’ve seen it happen at every company I’ve seen survive. Complacency is a killer.
None of this is new. But AI has accelerated all of this, significantly. The good news is, the solution is the same as always.
Serve your customer, serve your community. If you get outrun while running your best race, that’s just the game. But you’ve gotta come ready and able to run.