The Traditional Software Stack Is Being Turned Inside Out

The traditional software stack is being turned inside out.

Product development has always had three main stages: Ideation → Build → Distribution.

With AI coding assistants and agentic tools, the “build” stage is shrinking rapidly. Here’s what that does to leverage.

The middle is compressing

Writing code is no longer the main constraint. Prototyping costs are plummeting toward zero.

The ends are expanding

Value is concentrating heavily at the bookends:

1. Ideation — UX/UI taste, deep problem clarity, and product intuition.
2. Distribution — go-to-market execution, positioning, and customer acquisition, in both B2B and B2C.

This explains why nearly every founder I talk to repeats the same challenge:

“We can build the product fast. But we can’t find product designers with great taste, or GTM operators who know how to break through the noise.”

Code is becoming commoditized. Taste in product and mastery in distribution are the new moats.

How are you adapting to this shift?

This post first appeared on LinkedIn.