The new scarce skill isn’t coding. It’s writing specifications that fully capture intent.
So, it seems PRDs are now in vogue again, according to Ravi, given the power to drive the outputs with AI. We wrote a fun post over a decade ago claiming the PRD is dead (in favor of a prototype). He’s got a good post and article.
So here’s where things have changed and thoughts:
-
Specs are leverage. They don’t slow you down—they speed up alignment, implementation, and iteration. I’ve not fully seen this YET.
-
Prototypes shape the spec. You don’t need perfect clarity upfront. Test the vibe, then write it down clean. But DEBT is somehow not included here.
-
The spec is the prompt. It’s not just for your team—it’s for the AI too. That means clarity isn’t optional. But how do you get clarity?
-
Writing is product work. A great spec is execution. If you can write it, you can ship it. And you need to know the customer problem.
-
Communication scales faster than code. The real bottleneck now? Shared understanding. That’s our job.
Here’s where I think we are trying to support teams with Glare: Clarity doesn’t come from just thinking harder it comes from observing how people actually understand and use the thing.
That’s where UX metrics can be super helpful in these scenarios.