Episode 1 – Building Products

I’ve been thinking a lot about how AI is changing the way we build. Not just speeding things up, but completely shifting the operating model. I’ve been talking about this with different teams internally for a few weeks now. But I’ve noticed that the written word travels further—and reaches more people—than I can, so here goes.

We’re now at a point where one person, with the right AI frameworks, can take an idea and ship a real product in days. Not weeks. Not months. Days.

Here’s how it plays out across the stack:

- Product: AI helps prioritize ideas, analyze support tickets, research competitors, and write the first draft of a spec.

- Design: Tools like Lovable, V0, and figr make it easy to spin up real designs, run feedback loops, and test usability.

- Engineering: AI generates frontend components, backend APIs, and database queries with AI. It’ll even review the code, write the unit tests, and flag performance or security issues before they ship.

- QA: AI writes and runs test cases automatically.

- Support: It creates help docs from the spec and powers chatbots that actually help customers.

But here’s the thing: this only works if every part of the business is building with AI-first frameworks.

These systems don’t replace people. They make them faster. Smarter. More independent.

We’re building a new operating model—one where every team owns AI-powered systems, and the people who plug into them can ship full products on their own.

The breakdown:

- 1. AI as the new teammate

Not just automation—augmentation. AI helps at every stage: idea, build, test, launch. From backlog to live product.

- 2. Framework builders vs. problem solvers

You’ve got a few folks building strong systems: design scaffolds, code gen templates, test suites. Then you’ve got solvers—people who use those systems to move fast and ship.

- 3. Teams of one

With the right tools, a single person can go from a rough idea to a fully working product in just a few days. This is the future. One person, one idea, one stack. Built and shipped in a few days.

This is the future and we need to get there yesterday.

You’ve probably noticed over the past few days there’s been a big push: everyone on the team is being asked to use Cursor, GPT-4o, and every other AI tool we can get our hands on. The Level Up dev sessions? All about how to use AI.

Across the board, let’s hold off on adding headcount unless it’s absolutely necessary. When it is, we need to review every job description and make sure the person coming in is using AI for everything. We’re not just hiring individual contributors—we’re hiring people who can manage AI teammates.

There are two big goals here:

1. We need to use a lot of AI internally so we can serve our customers better.

2. We need to provide powerful AI tools to our customers so they can be more efficient—and do a much better job for their customers.

Use AI. Sell AI.