Why cultivating agency matters more than cultivating skills in the AI era | Max Schoening (Head of Product, Notion)
Source
Lenny Rachitsky
Author
Lenny Rachitsky
Date
Terms in this piece · Glossary
agent skill — A reusable instruction file that teaches an agent how to do one job well — the procedure, the tools, and what counts as done.
Why it matters
A rare inside look at how a leading AI-forward product org gets non-engineers shipping code and prototyping in the terminal, plus a sharp framework ('tiny core' products, the free first 10%) for building AI-native products.
Key quotes
“The first 10% of every project are now free.”
Max Schoening
“We already have universal basic income.
It's called knowledge work.”
Max Schoening
“The reason I like thinking in code
is because it forces you to consider the medium.”
Max Schoening
“You're able to run a virtual machine in your head
where given an idea, you can predict for a certain in-group
whether they're going to like it or not, right?”
Max Schoening
“All the great products have something tiny
that is a superpower.”
Max Schoening
Chapters
00:00Introduction to Max Schoening
01:55The origin story of designers coding at Notion
06:30How much designers and PMs are shipping today
08:24The balance between shipping code and strategic work
10:32Why agency will help you thrive in the AI era
11:49Examples of high agency at Notion
13:52What we might lose as roles merge
15:56Advice for developing agency
17:42Malleable software explained
20:43The Dieter Rams video and design philosophy
24:00The SaaS apocalypse debate
28:25How product building has changed in the past two years
30:27What's next in how we build products
34:16Token spend and ROI conversations
37:39Getting people to change how they work
39:04Max's AI stack
41:41Which roles AI will transform next
44:26When companies will start caring about ROI
48:38Why Notion AI is so successful
51:47How to ship more quickly while maintaining quality
56:40Building taste through iterations
1:00:09What matters most in building successful products
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