When the Internet emerged in the mid-1990’s, it seemed clear to me and many others that we were entering a new era of technology, one where our devices and our servers would all be connected, and where data would largely be stored in the cloud. The Internet was essentially a new platform, and a large…
I remember feeling that same sense of inevitability—and urgency—when I first internalized what that shift meant for product development. Platform changes don’t just add features; they rewrite the rules for product strategy, architecture, and go-to-market. The leaders who moved quickly to reimagine their products for a connected, cloud-first world won. Those who clung to comfortable assumptions faced disruption and denial in equal measure.
Today, I see a parallel inflection point with Generative AI (gen ai). Once again, we’re not just adopting a tool; we’re building on a new platform layer that alters how we discover problems, design solutions, and deliver value. In my role leading product teams, I’ve learned that the most effective response is to pair disciplined product discovery with fast, low-risk experimentation—especially using gen ai for product prototyping—to shorten the path from insight to impact.
Practically, this means forming forward deployed engineers and product creators into tight, outcome-driven squads that run continuous experiments, validate assumptions with real users, and iterate rapidly. It also means establishing product management leadership guardrails: clear problem statements, measurable outcomes, data baselines, and rigorous ethics reviews for AI usage. When we treat gen ai as a platform—not a feature—we unlock new product capabilities while managing risk with intention.
The pattern is consistent across eras: replatforming demands curiosity over certainty, learning over legacy, and speed over perfection. We evaluate where connectivity, cloud, and gen ai can remove friction for customers; we instrument our products to learn faster; and we align cross-functional teams around outcomes rather than output. The organizations that embrace this mindset transform disruption into advantage—while those in denial find themselves reacting from behind.
If you’re leading product in this moment, your edge is how quickly you can learn, prototype, and adapt. Start small, ship frequently, and let evidence—not ego—guide your roadmap. The next breakthrough will come from teams that marry strategic clarity with hands-on discovery, using gen ai to accelerate insight without sacrificing trust, safety, or product quality.
Inspired by this post on SVPG.
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