Development speed is not a bottleneck

The article sort of glosses over this, but to me the real question is delivering value over the long run. This takes patience and tenacity not just from developers but also from management. Making a product that lasts and that evolves and that delivers for your clients is definitely a lot more challenging (and finally rewarding) than vibe-coding an MVP in a couple of weeks. I have the impression that in that regard AI coding tools are quite inadequate and don't really deliver the value they purport to.

That's just another great vantage point to consider when looking at product development.

Accompanying many early-stage startups in their journey, I see how often the development (which we're responsible for) takes a back seat. Sometimes the pivotal role will be customer support, sometimes it will be business development, and often product management will drive the whole thing.

And there's one more follow-up thought to this observation. Products that achieved success, inevitably, get into a spiral of getting more features. That, in turn, makes them more clunky and less usable, and ultimately opens a way for new players who disrupt the niche.

At some point, adding more features in general makes things worse--too complicated, too overwhelming, making it harder to accomplish the core task. And yet, adding new stuff never ceases.

In the long run, the best tactic may actually be to go slower (and stop at some point), but focus on the meaningful changes.