How to stand out when anyone can build anything

“AI may be the future, but Sam Altman just said that the present looks suspiciously like 1999. At a dinner with reporters, the OpenAI CEO said out loud what Wall Street has been whispering: Yes, this is an AI bubble. Investors are tossing money at anything with ‘AI’ attached to the name, the way they once did with dot-com startups and a domain registry.”

Sound familiar? It should. We’re living through a perfect storm where building products has never been easier, money flows to anything labeled “AI,” and the market gets flooded with half-baked solutions nobody asked for.

The tools promised to democratize product creation. Mission accomplished—maybe too well.

The barrier shifted (and most people missed it)

Five years ago, the biggest hurdle to launching a product was actually building it. You needed developers, designers, infrastructure knowledge. The technical complexity kept most bad ideas from seeing daylight.

AI tools like Lovable, Bolt, and v0 removed that barrier completely. Now anyone can spin up a working app in an afternoon. No-code platforms let non-technical founders build complex workflows. AI can generate interfaces, write copy, even handle basic user interactions.

But here’s what happened while everyone celebrated the democratization: the real challenge should have shifted from “how do we build this?” to “what should we build that people actually want?”

Instead, most people just changed the question to “what do we build next?”—without ever asking whether people want it in the first place.

The result? An explosion of products that work perfectly fine but solve problems that don’t exist. Apps that look polished but feel hollow. Features that demonstrate technical capability but ignore human needs.

The barrier to building dropped to zero. The bar for what users expect shot through the roof.

The skills that actually matter now

When anyone can build anything, standing out isn’t about better tools or flashier features. It’s about fundamentally different skills that most people skip entirely:

1. Understanding real user needs (not assumptions)

Most products start with someone’s assumption about what users want. “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” or “I bet people would love…”

Real user research feels slow and messy compared to just building something. But here’s the thing: you can prototype an app in a weekend, but if you’re solving the wrong problem, you just built garbage really efficiently.

The best products start with deep user research. Not surveys about what features people want, but understanding their actual daily struggles. What makes them frustrated? What workarounds do they currently use? How would their life change if this problem disappeared entirely?

This isn’t about asking users what they want—it’s about understanding what they need, often before they can articulate it themselves.

2. Business literacy (understanding the economics)

Many founders—whether they come from design, development, or other backgrounds—build impressive demos that make terrible businesses. They optimize for complexity instead of value. They add features instead of solving core problems better.

There’s a running joke in the show Silicon Valley where founders are told never to mention revenue—if you have any, it’s too little, so just say you’re “pre-revenue.” Funny on TV, but this mentality has infected real startups. Building becomes the goal, not building something people will pay for.

Understanding business fundamentals helps you ask better questions: Who will pay for this? Why? How much? What’s their budget for solving this problem? What are they using now, and why would they switch?

You don’t need an MBA, but you need to think beyond the product to the entire user experience—including the part where money changes hands.

3. Communication skills (translating needs into solutions)

Here’s something most technical people miss: the biggest part of product work isn’t building—it’s communicating.

You need to translate user needs into technical requirements. Explain complex features in simple terms. Write copy that actually helps users accomplish their goals. Pitch ideas to stakeholders who don’t think like you.

Writing, specifically, has become a secret superpower. When anyone can build a functional app, the apps that succeed are the ones that communicate clearly at every touchpoint.

4. Craft and polish (building something truly outstanding)

AI tools are great at getting you 80% of the way there quickly. The problem is, 80% looks obviously AI-generated. It feels generic. It lacks the small details that make products feel intentional and trustworthy.

Real craft means understanding why certain design decisions work. It means obsessing over the details AI tools skip. It means building fewer features but making each one feel inevitable.

None of the AI-generated products I’ve seen have this quality yet. They work, but they don’t feel right. They solve problems but don’t create delight.

The opportunity (it’s bigger than you think)

Most people see the flood of AI-generated products as increased competition. I see it as a massive opportunity for anyone willing to do the harder work.

When the market gets flooded with mediocre-but-functional products, users become more discerning, not less. They start caring more about how products make them feel, not just what features they have.

The companies that understand this—that focus on real user needs, clear communication, business fundamentals, and genuine craft—won’t just stand out. They’ll dominate.

What this means for you

Whether you’re a founder, designer, developer, or product manager, the skills that matter most have shifted:

Stop optimizing for speed of development, feature count, or technical complexity.

Start optimizing for user understanding, clear communication, business value, and thoughtful execution.

The tools got easier. The job got harder. But for people willing to focus on what actually matters—understanding humans and building things they genuinely want—this is the best time ever to build something meaningful.

Most of your competition is still trying to solve technical problems that no longer exist. While they’re celebrating how quickly they can ship, you can focus on shipping the right things.

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This post draws heavily from ideas in my upcoming book “Products People Actually Want,” which covers these skills in depth—from user research techniques to business fundamentals to communication strategies that actually work. The book will be released mid-September. If you’re tired of building products nobody wants, it might be worth a read. Sign up to my newsletter to be notified when it’s available.