How many apps have you decided not to use because 1) it couldn’t do what everyone else does, and 2) it didn’t have anything novel or interesting to offer?

Stop solving for Minimum Boring Product (MBP)—go above and beyond and let a little scope creep result in a more well thought out product. Your users don’t always know what they want, but they’ll know it when they see it.

In the age of AI, there’s no excuse to cut scope too aggressively. The joys of iterating come from novel ideas internally, influenced by user needs and feedback. Use that extra momentum to build throwaway features, and if they don’t stick with your users, you can always revise later. The key is market differentiation, or you risk selling a boring product that anyone can build. Do the clever thing, and be different! When in doubt, try an experiments or labs model to alpha/beta test with users!

Help your users succeed by giving them the tools to build trust in your platform. The upfront investment will pay off in the long run, and you will build an unshakeable loyalty from your customers.

Get ahead of what your competition isn’t already doing. Be a little disruptive! If getting a feature to “work” is your only goal, you’re leaving money on the table for cooler things.

Innovation got really boring after Steve Jobs died. He used his intuition to build great products nobody ever thought they needed. Today, we’re obsessed with MVPs and bare minimum feature parity with our competitors, leaving paying customers saying “that’s all?”

Your users aren’t entirely unique or special, so design your product with the best UX assumptions as a baseline, and then tweak to their needs. They will thank you later!

Don’t outsource your thinking to AI. Make AI tools work harder for your brilliant mind, and invite your team into that process.

Establish shared ownership across your teams, and you’ll never have a more enthusiastic crew to work with. Keep them involved, and if they need help, give them new problems to stretch themselves—even if it isn’t directly solving a business need.

AI development is ideal for solving the most tedious tasks that nobody enjoys (let’s be honest!), leaving room for us to put our minds to deeper work.

Always be willing to swim against the current while everyone else chases the hype. When they zig, you zag. Be wrong first, or right all along. Skip the bandwagon, and when others scoff at you for it, love them anyway, with a laugh. They’ll catch up eventually, and they may even hate you still — but your principles stood the test of time. You avoided the impulse to conform, whether it was towards destruction or regret; and if you were late to something great, you’re finally here.