Everyone's a product builder

Sometime back, someone coined the phrase "everyone is a designer". It sidled in with Design Thinking, and it really did help spearhead creativity. Everyone was part of the process (coming along for the proverbial journey), and it showed the business the power of design.

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Now, everyone's a product builder. And they really are. You don't even have to type. This week I looked at a prototype built from spoken instructions, finished in three hours at a hackathon.

So the question from the business becomes: how do we get this built? While the fully stuffed backlog also needs building, obviously. If it's something new, that's a lot easier. If it has to plug into existing systems, less so.

The hidden 80%

A prototype is the 20% you can see. The other 80% is edge cases, legal, accessibility, support, data, connectivity. We used to spend our time getting to the interface. Now that's the fastest bit (let's not get side tracked by where the alternative designs and concept testing has gone). The drag is working out how to integrate it.

Yes, the engineers are moving at a cracking pace, so the backlog is moving faster (yay). But those same engineers now talk to the business and (eventually) customers. Do they actually want to? Meanwhile I can crank out backlog at record speed with fantastic accuracy. And adopt a technical stance that feeds my total and utter imposter syndrome.

It's not just product work. AI can now vomit out content across the whole business. Oh the joy of the time spent catching the slop. The usual excuse? ‘We just didn’t brief it right.’ True. So may I suggest we all get better at that, rather rapidly? And perhaps checking it before sharing it?

I've just spent a week of 12-hour days correcting and re-correcting. I still got far more done than I ever would have before - and found insights and data it would have taken me weeks to dig out. But the back and forth to check, double check, challenge.... it's effort and it's real.

Treat it like an enthusiastic intern

AI can gather and find. It can merge and summarise. But it doesn't know what to do with any of it unless you give it clear direction. So set up guardrails, brief it properly, and check, and double check. My persistent question this week "and where did you get that from?"

Everyone can design. Everyone can build a product.

For someone like me - logic, boxes and arrows, research and discovery - AI is a strong companion. For our app, with its set pattern library and task flows, we're now living the dream with Claude spitting out interactive prototypes that align to the style guide. But briefing a design and the problem to solve, the feeling users should have and how a talented designer interprets that and takes it to the next level? That's the skill only they bring. Everyone absolutely can design. Very few design well.

I'd say I can use the same logic about building products. As we know - there are no shortage of ideas.

I worry at times we'll end up like the car industry. All cars look the same because they're designed by computers, for speed and aerodynamics. In a world where we shouldn't speed, and should be enjoying the experience and the individuality.

I'm conflicted. Apps already look the same (churned out by Lovable and friends). That's not necessarily bad - consistency makes things easier to use. It's just that to win, you still really do need to stand out. You need to be the Purple Cow. This means first principles become more important than ever - why are you building it? Do people want it? Use that rapid prototype to help you know the answer to the viability, desirability and feasibility conundrum.

Tip

First principles still matter - just because you can doesn't mean you should. Discovery and judgement are now your core skills.

Starter for 10 - some useful links

• Purple Cow by Seth Godin - why being remarkable beats being safe

• Inspired by Marty Cagan - what product work really involves beyond building

• Continuous Discovery Teresa Torres - why it still matters