3 Lessons in AI First Product Development

What I tell successful co-founders

I had an opportunity to talk to the founders of Dream Games this week, including their strategic advisor Ed Catmull (co-founder of Pixar — and yes, it was really cool to meet him, especially as I’m currently reading Creativity, Inc.), about how we think about building products with Generative AI within Google Labs.

I started by highlighting some of the cool things we’ve launched within our broader team (including Labs Sessions, MusicFX + DJ Mode, ImageFX, NotebookLM) as well as my own products (Google AI Studio + Gemini API). I then went over 3 of the key product lessons I’ve taken away from my years of building AI first products:

1. Build for where the technology is going, not just where it’s at.

2. Identify where technology and opportunity intersect — expect that to change.

3. Launch fast and iterate faster.

3 Lessons in AI First Product Development

I love doing these engagements as they always end up expanding how I think about building products - exposing me to new types of use cases I may not have otherwise thought about, and oftentimes making me think harder about things, causing me to recognize new patterns or themes.

Here is a link to the key slides from my talk: Lessons in Building.