The New Builders
AI is quickly converging Product, Design, and Engineering
Something significant is shifting in software development. The traditional roles - product managers who decide what to build, designers who make it usable, and engineers who build it - are collapsing into a single role. I call these people Builders.
This isn't just another passing trend in tech. It's a fundamental shift in how things get built, enabled by AI. And it's happening whether the traditional tech industry likes it or not.
The old way of building products was like a game of telephone. A product manager would talk to users, translate their needs into requirements, hand those to designers who'd create mockups, and finally pass those to engineers who'd build the actual product. At each step, something was lost in translation.
This process worked, sort of. It's how most successful software has been built for the past few decades. But it was slow, expensive, and often resulted in products that missed the mark.
The new way is different. Instead of three specialist roles passing work between them, you have one person - a Builder - who does it all. Not because they're superhuman, but because AI has made each piece manageable for a single person.
This sounds impossible to people steeped in the old way of doing things. How can one person replace an entire team? But that's the wrong way to think about it. Builders aren't replacing teams - they're changing what's possible for individuals to achieve.
Think of it like the difference between traditional TV networks and YouTube creators. Before YouTube, creating professional video content required an entire production team - directors, camera operators, editors, distributors. YouTube didn't replace TV networks. It created a new way to create video content that let individuals do something that previously required an entire studio.
The same thing is happening with software development. AI tools are doing for product development what YouTube and its ecosystem of creator tools did for video content. They're not replacing traditional software development - they're creating a new way to build that lets individuals do what previously required teams.
What makes someone a good Builder isn't mastery of specific technical skills. It's something more fundamental: an obsession with solving real problems for real users. The best Builders I know spend most of their time thinking about what to build, not how to build it. They're driven not just by market opportunities, but by a vision of how technology can genuinely enhance human flourishing.
This is counterintuitive. Conventional wisdom says building software is hard because programming is hard. But that's not true anymore. The hard part isn't writing the code—AI is increasingly good at that—but figuring out what to build in the first place.
This shift has huge implications. First, it means the path to becoming a successful Builder is different than the traditional path in tech. Instead of spending years mastering a specific technical skill, you're better off spending that time understanding users and their problems.
Second, it means the advantage in software is shifting from technical execution to problem selection. The winners will not be the companies with the best engineers but the companies with the best understanding of what to build and the wisdom to build it responsibly, considering both intended and unintended consequences on people and communities. For example, a Builder might ask not just 'Can we automate this process?' but 'Should we automate this process, and how can we do it in a way that enhances rather than diminishes human agency?'
Finally, it means we will see an explosion of new software products built by individuals and small teams. The barriers to entry are falling, and they're falling fast.
This isn't to say traditional software development is going away. Large-scale software still requires teams of specialists. But just as blogs didn't kill traditional publishing, Builders won't kill traditional software development. They'll create a new, parallel way of building that enables different kinds of products to exist.
The age of the Builder is just beginning. If you're interested in creating software, don't let the traditional barriers stop you. The tools are getting better every day, and the world needs more people who can think deeply about problems worth solving - who can immerse themselves in understanding the full complexity and human dimensions of those problems. The question isn't whether you can code - it's whether you can envision and craft solutions to problems that truly matter, taking on the hard but worthy quests of our time.
That's what being a Builder is all about.
P.S. If you're excited about being this kind of Builder, we're looking for people to join us at Sprout AI Studio where we're building AI ventures that strengthen human connection and relationships. We are looking for Builders focused on founding, . Check them out: https://www.sproutai.com/build-with-us