I’ve been thinking about what kind of farm I’m trying to build.
AI makes it feel much easier to start something. Build a prototype, launch a product, plant another seed. When I look at all the things I could make, starting from scratch feels less like the main problem. I can keep starting. But what am I building towards?
An orchard and a greenhouse are both farms, but they require different decisions. One might depend on patience and the conditions of the land. Another might depend on how carefully you control the environment. If I haven’t decided what I want to grow, I can’t tell which conditions I need.
What are we trying to produce?
I can imagine building for the highest possible yield, or for the quality of what comes out. Those choices would change the machinery, the resources, the time involved. Even before planting, I’d need to understand the seed and what it requires as it moves from one stage to the next.
I think we skip too much of that when we talk about products. We have an idea and immediately ask how to build it. We can get quite far before asking what this thing is supposed to become, or who would want it once it gets there.
If I scatter enough seeds, something will probably grow. That still leaves me with the possibility of harvesting something nobody wants to eat.
The analogy helps me ask a more specific question about the business: what has to be true around the product for it to keep producing something people want?
Where does it fit in a day?
Signull’s writing about what happens after launch got me thinking about daily routines. A launch is a moment. I want to understand where a product fits once someone goes back to living their life.
Why would they spend time with it? What would it help them do? If it becomes part of their routine, how does that create value over time?
That leads me further than the question of how to get someone into a chatbot or a terminal. I want to start with how people might want to spend their time, then work backwards to the things that would help.
I don’t have a complete picture of that farm yet. But choosing another seed before figuring out what I’m trying to grow feels like avoiding the harder part.