There's a new "design is dead, because AI" piece (thinly disguised marketing from Anthropic). But looking past the hype headlines, their claims cover purely production-stage tasks.
When it comes to the work of understanding user needs and evaluating the opportunity space, AI actually makes your thinking worse. Studies show that it alienates you from users and colleagues, and flattens your thinking.
We need more human-centered practice, not less.
productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/so…
Software is a coordination problem. AI can't help you with that.
The feedback loops of the product delivery lifecycle go through people. Adding AI makes it slower, not faster.Pavel Samsonov (The Product Picnic)
Pavel A. Samsonov reshared this.
Pavel A. Samsonov
in reply to Pavel A. Samsonov • • •Cedar Fen Farm Cedar Fen Farm
in reply to Pavel A. Samsonov • • •Pavel A. Samsonov
in reply to Cedar Fen Farm Cedar Fen Farm • • •David Mankins
in reply to Pavel A. Samsonov • • •It’s good to raise issues like this to point out beneficial strategies.
One of the benefits of proper use of AI tools is they reduce the burden of throwing prototypes away, and let you iterate over user-centered design with real implementations instead of mock-ups.
The problem is (and has always been) the tension between the dual masters of budget and craft. AI tools, properly approached, decrease budgetary pressure and make more time and opportunity for craft.
Pavel A. Samsonov
in reply to David Mankins • • •David Mankins
in reply to Pavel A. Samsonov • • •I can remember when getting people to write tests was “insurmountable”. Documentation still seems to be insurmountable. Yet we have ideals and ideas of what can make for best practices.
If you’ve not observed it, ask why? The people around you who think their AI tools are making them so much more preductive must now have time to get the software right, ask them why they’re not taking advantage of that — inculcate good habits instead of claiming good habits are impossible.