There's a lot of excitement about AI making developers work faster. You've probably heard the claim that AI tools can make developers "10 times more productive." While this speed boost is real, it raises an important question: Is faster always better?
The True Cost of New Features
When you add a new feature to your product, the development time is just the tip of the iceberg. Here's what happens behind the scenes:
Your teams spend hours in meetings trying to get everyone on the same page. Your sales team needs training to explain the feature to customers. Your support team has to write documentation. Marketing needs to plan announcements. And your developers need to maintain this code forever.
But here's what makes this tricky: Taking away a feature is even harder than building one. You have to:
- Tell your customers months before you make the change
- Deal with unhappy feedback
- Create ways for users to move their data
- Remove the old code
- Update every piece of documentation that mentions the feature
A Better Way Forward
In this new AI-powered world, asking "How fast can we build it?" isn't enough. We need to ask "Should we build it at all?"
This is where product discovery comes in. Product discovery is the process of understanding what your customers need before introducing product changes. It helps you avoid wasting time on features that won't make a real difference.
What's Next?
As AI makes building faster and easier, the next big challenge is clear: How do we make the discovery process just as quick? How do we find the right things to build, not just build things right?
The teams that figure this out will truly benefit from AI's speed boost. They'll build better products, waste less time, and make their customers happier.
The future isn't just about building faster—it's about building smarter.