When the Pressure Mounts, Meaning Matters #25
From agent-led growth to AI-assisted prototyping, the tools are accelerating fast. But the real shift isn’t about speed. It’s about certainty, clarity, and learning to find meaning in the middle of change.
We're firmly into February now. Shit is getting real and the pressure is mounting. To deliver, to listen and to respond. Change can't be ignored.
This blog has been great at keeping the wheels turning on being accountable and continuing to write, and I've also been spending more and more time in Substack where I intend to write more intentionally. To challenge myself not to just post, but to post something that means something.
Ross Chapman
And I think that's what I'm continually searching for. Something that has meaning.
This industry is fantastic because it's constantly changing. Even if you read the headlines around Grok making coding obsolete, I see that there's a maturity index and companies that I've worked with aren't seeing this as an issue right now. Personally, I wouldn't start a new product or business using the traditional format, but that's the funny thing with existing products and businesses. There's sunk cost, decisions made - dogma even.
But I'm not thinking I need to retrain and become a farmer just yet. Helping teams manage this change, learning about this change myself and understanding my value in it - that's where I'm finding meaning.
I helped a couple of friends with a pitch deck earlier this week. There's still an art to identifying an opportunity. It isn't the prototype, or the TAM, SAM and SOM. It's not even the £££ doing this now could make. It's being aware of their particular situation and discovering what they don't know about - but should.
And realistically, with an existing team, you can't ship a solution in a day. They have checks, stakeholders and release constraints. That's why you may have noticed that I talk less about speed, and more about certainty. Taking longer, but being more intentional with change - that's more meaningful.
On Substack, I follow some great people over there - you should check out:
- https://thestillwandering.substack.com/
- https://www.elenaverna.com/
- https://emmavandijkum.substack.com/
- https://designplusai.com/
thanks, Ross
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