Discovery vs. Delivery: Where Humans Win in an AI World

In my last post, I shared how AI is encouraging us to recognize what are our uniquely human capabilities. Here, I'll dive into how this plays out in product work through a framework that's becoming increasingly important: the distinction between discovery and delivery.

The Framework: Two Types of Product Work

This isn't a new concept—Marty Cagan at SVPG has written extensively about discovery vs. delivery. But AI is making this distinction more critical than ever.

Discovery is the judgment-heavy work of understanding problems and figuring out good solutions. It's messy, uncertain, and requires deep human insight.

Delivery is the process-driven work of building and shipping those solutions. It's more structured, repeatable, and—as it turns out—increasingly automatable.

Where AI Excels vs. Where Humans Still Rule

AI excels at delivery: the process-driven work of generating PRDs, utilizing design templates, writing code, and deployment. But product discovery—the judgment-heavy work of understanding problems and figuring out good solutions—remains fundamentally human.

As AI handles more of the execution, the "human" premium shifts to the discovery work. The judgment calls. The deep customer empathy. The business acumen to balance what's valuable with what's viable. The design thinking that makes complex problems feel simple. The technical insight to understand what's feasible for either smaller hacks or large production builds. In other words, the skills that separate innovative product teams from straightforward execution.

AI can't navigate the messy human dynamics of understanding what customers actually need versus what they say they need. It can't make the hard trade-offs between competing business objectives. It can't build the trust and psychological safety required for challenging discourse and brainstorming. And it certainly can't take accountability for outcomes when probabilistic systems make mistakes.

The Skills That Matter More Than Ever

The capabilities that are becoming more valuable, not less:

• Deep customer empathy: Understanding the emotional and practical context behind user needs
• Business judgment: Making trade-offs between competing objectives with incomplete information
• Technical intuition: Knowing what's feasible and what trade-offs different approaches might require
• Design thinking: Simplifying complex problems into elegant solutions
• Strategic thinking: Connecting dots between user problems and business opportunities

Why This Matters Beyond Product Management

This discovery vs. delivery distinction applies far beyond product management. In any field involving innovation or complex problem-solving, we're likely to see a similar split:

• Creative/strategic roles that require judgment, empathy, and complex reasoning will become more valuable
• Process-driven roles that involve structured, repeatable tasks will increasingly be augmented or replaced by AI

The key is positioning yourself on the discovery side of this equation—the part that requires uniquely human capabilities.

The Real Transformation

What makes this transformation different from previous technology shifts is that success will depend entirely on our most human capabilities. Previous automation replaced physical labor or simple cognitive tasks. AI is different—it's actually quite good at certain types of cognitive work, but it struggles with the messy, uncertain, relationship-heavy aspects of discovery.

This creates a fascinating dynamic: as AI gets better at delivery, the value of human discovery work doesn't just stay the same—it increases. AI isn't just changing what we do; it's revealing what we should have been doing all along: focusing on the uniquely human work of understanding problems, building relationships, and navigating complex trade-offs.

The teams and individuals who can do discovery well—who can engage in challenging discourse, build trust, and navigate complex human dynamics—will have a significant competitive advantage.

In my next post, I'll explore what "challenging discourse" actually looks like in practice and how to build environments where it can flourish.