In the early 2000s, our idea of the “good” product came from the agile movement. That product which maximizes impact and minimizes effort, the one that develops over time.

When the idea of Lean Startup appeared (let’s say with Eric Ries’s book in 2011), the concepts of this “good product” were multiplied. Rather than developing over time, we literally stuck ourselves to the user. At the slightest blink of an eye from them, the product adapted.

Then we realized that with this proximity to the user, not only could we stick to their every move, but, by getting just a tiny bit ahead, we could take them somewhere. We could surreptitiously direct them.

And from there, with the power of a place like Silicon Valley, we got our hands on users.

The boundary between optimization, adaptation and manipulation became blurred.

This is the Silicon Valley product, the one that makes all entrepreneurs dream. That product which is born from an anecdotal or flamboyant idea, and whose authors through tenacity and adaptations make it a central element of global usage. That kind of success story.

Lightweight and highly evolutionary products, digital ones, without physical substance, in constant evolution, where we constantly discover (continuous discovery), where we deliver in flow (continuous delivery), where we measure the slightest change, the slightest usage to optimize.

That’s what makes product communities dream. That’s what used to sell books.

Today, this idea of the product, as exciting as it has been—I was the first one dazzled by the practical intelligence of Lean startup—crashes against the history unfolding before our eyes. This history is the collapse of the world as we have known it, the collapse of its values. A product necessarily fits into a story. And History crushes the reason for being of these products that only measure themselves by their success (market share).

Civilization

In my eyes, this product is finished, because our civilization crisis is too deep.

All conversations are seized by the question of civilization. How do we want to live? How will we be able to live?

Whether it’s the return of fascism on a large scale, or the continuous collapse (also) of planetary boundaries. My churn¹ I don’t care about. Well, I don’t care about it in relation to this Silicon Valley-esque vision that excited us so much: this phenomenal capacity for adaptation.

And then, who still wants to work for google, twitter, spotify or facebook? Kent Beck, can you imagine him going back to Facebook, to Zuckenberg? If yes, he definitively loses all credibility. What musician wants to go enrich the devious boss of Spotify?

So?

Either silicon valley wins and we’re heading toward a world of consumer automatons, where the user is no longer really the master, but only the user (look for example at the now possible imposition of certain types of authentication, or the use of AI). The dominant products have become so dominant that they escape the cycle: need, usage, measurement, to simply impose their ways on us. We have the necessity to use them at the risk of falling behind: from our job, from our understanding of the world.

Or silicon valley collapses (planetary resources, or other) and our relationship to the value of the product changes completely, the sought-after impacts will be very different.

Desire

In 2022, I talked about a Maximum Tolerable Product, in connection with planetary constraints that were fading one after another.

Today—in addition to that, which is an even more current topic—I need to find a desire, a want, as was the case before. But this desire, this want cannot be attached to a usage as was the case before (bis repetita).

This desire, this want must carry a meaning, which fits into a vision of civilization. We’ve gone up a notch in logical levels, one could say. It’s no longer the usage that attracts me, but the civilization, the convictions, the thought that the product represents that will matter from now on.

If we could kick out all Silicon Valley products and replace them with local, European products, we would do it immediately, it seems to me.

I think PMs, CPOs, and company should quickly look into this question.

AI, unidentified flying object.

Its power is a hypnotic hallucination and at the same time, we feel it brings us closer to a mortal abyss.

It could offer both the drastic reduction of work time (interview with Bernie Sanders by Jon Stewart two days ago), and the end of humanity (article in lemonde.fr today).

We don’t know what civilization it proposes and we clearly understand the struggle to possess its source.

AI shows us that the product is no longer a question of searching for usage, but of civilization.