Test-n-Tell - tiny apps, Big ideas

  An AI agent is like a super obedient engineer. It does whatever you ask. It rarely challenges you. It rarely pushes back. It rarely says: “This is a bad idea.” And if it goes off script, well, that’s probably because your instructions were too vague. Finally, executives got what they always dreamed about: a builder who simply builds.

  When I started vibe coding, I had a budget in mind. I knew I needed to learn a bunch of new AI tools, and that would cost something: subscriptions, hosting, third-party tools, APIs. And it did cost me a bit… then a bit more… and finally a lot more. So here’s me sharing a few things I learned (and paid for) so you don’t have to.

  There’s a persistent myth in product development: that what you ship is the roadmap. In reality, what you ship is the organisation that built the roadmap.

  Spreadsheets are among the most powerful tools in modern organisations. They clarify plans. They align teams. They make trade-offs visible. They help leaders reason about complexity. But they also create one of the most dangerous illusions in product development: the illusion of certainty. 

  Everyone who has ever tried to create a product has their embarrassing failure story. Here's one of mine.

  How's an old song by Paul McCartney and a famous quote by William Blake relevant to product management and business in general? Yeah, it's one of "those" posts.

  How could you simultaneously succeed and fail with your product? Unfortunately, this is easy and common. You can make a product that works for a few, but not for the many.

Making products successful is tough. It requires a lot of skill, even more hard work and a great dose of luck. Most importantly it requires everyone to work together and towards the same objective. This sounds obvious but people aspects, or culture, often become the reason your product fails.

  This is a trivial reason for product failure, but also very common. You have finite resources to achieve product success. If you run out of them before you reach product success - you might not have a second chance.

  All of the things contribute to product success. And every thing, however small, could be the reason the product failed.

  We already reviewed some of the most common reasons products fail - there is either no problem worth solving or, often and, when an organisation is not focused enough to solve the problem the right way.

  Some products are great. Beautifully looking, technically superb, with great marketing. Only one problem - no one is using them. Why? There's no problem worth solving with those products.

  Products fail for many reasons . Often, products fail because we are trying to do too much. The ability to focus, and to decide what you are NOT going to do is vital to have a chance of success.