A lot has been said lately about knowing what to build. That matters, obviously. But I think the more important shift is in how products actually get built.

AI speeds up the whole loop. You can make, test, revise, and rebuild much faster than before. That sounds like a pure advantage, but it changes where the pressure goes. It raises the premium on steering, on judgment, and on how teams work together while they are building.

That steering depends on product intuition, or what I call decision terroir. A real feel for the market, competitors, the product itself, UX research, customer behavior, and the reasons people make the choices they do. Not in a theoretical way. In a lived way. In a way that helps you make fast calls while the work is in motion.

That matters because AI is not just speeding up output. It is amplifying inefficiencies too. Any skill issue gets more visible. Any delay in communication gets more expensive. Any wasted motion compounds faster. If the collaboration is off, you can drift a long way before anyone fully sees it.

And the cost of going in the wrong direction has gone up. Not just because you can move faster, but because everyone else can too. If your team spends a week building the wrong thing, that week matters more when the rest of the market is also compressing cycles and shipping quickly. Faster iteration is helpful, but faster iteration in the wrong direction is more punishing now than it used to be.

That is why I think building together matters more than ever, ideally in person when you can. A lot of the important decisions now happen in the middle of building. Not before, in a neat spec. Not after, in a review. In the middle. When engineering, product, and design are working closely, they can catch drift early, pressure test ideas in real time, and adjust before momentum carries the team too far in the wrong direction.

This is also why specs and prototypes have to co-evolve. The old model of deciding, then handing off, then reacting, breaks down when the loop speeds up. The best teams will be the ones with fast loops, more shared context, and better instincts on the work itself.

So yes, AI changes what individuals can do. But I think the deeper change is what it rewards in teams. Better steering. Better product intuition. Better shared context. Better push and pull while the product is taking shape.

That is the real leverage now. Not just building faster. Building in a way that can absorb speed without losing direction.