The product bottleneck remains the same

As we tried to make successful products, the bottleneck always felt the same: not enough engineers. Along the way we developed processes, rituals and all sorts of crutches to maximize the time of the engineering part of product teams.

Why?

The answer was always: because the more we ship the better.

Now, we have unlimited engineers in the form of AI coding agents.

Are we building one successful product after the next?

No. The results are largely the same so far. (With the exception of the ones selling AI.)

Engineering was never the bottleneck. Engineering is the execution layer. The product is born before that.

Knowing and deciding what to build was the real bottleneck.

And the plot-twist?

It remains the bottleneck.

Shipping was the most effective way we had to test our assumptions and get ahead of the competition. But now, the playing field has been leveled.

What will you do?