Most teams already let production shape what they do next, but we still think in these relatively linear cycles from idea to production. An incident changes a feature requirement. A cost spike forces a redesign. A support pattern triggers a new feature flag or rate limit. These issues get ticketed, included into the backlog, and the development team attempts to address this growing list in priority order.

The software industry is still grappling with novel AI technology. There are a range of opinions on how to best incorporate these systems - from giving the AI narrow and specific roles within the existing org structures, through to tearing the whole thing up and running a software factory with swarms of “agents” doing relatively unreviewed work. But even in the most radical approaches, this linear “we design something, make it, deploy it and then run it” thinking still dominates.

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