The Prototype Is a Question, Not a Product

Polish changes perception. Evidence changes the decision.A product lead wants a natural-language setup flow for a developer tool. One engineer thinks it could remove most of the friction from the first integration. Another worries that authentication, error recovery, and the current SDK contracts will make the experience brittle. A staff engineer sees a different risk: if the demo looks convincing, it may become a roadmap commitment before the team understands what it would take to operate.The team could spend another week improving the design document, or it could build a narrow prototype and put the disagreement in front of real evidence.AI changes the economics of that choice. For throwaway prototypes, I have felt the speed gain directly: a proof of concept that once took two or three days can now land in an afternoon. That makes implementation cheap enough to use during the decision process, not only after the decision has already been made.But AI makes the artifact cheaper, not…