In a world where standardization is advancing at an ever-increasing pace (especially in AI-world pace), how can tech products remain distinctive? Does constantly building more of the same lead us to an eternal cycle of mediocrity?

Your story is your strategy for differentiation, and it is defined by what you do, not what you say.

The authentic narrative built around why we exist, how we see the world, and how we work helps form the initial part of our story. When we are already building, trade-offs from our business, who our product serves, why it serves them uniquely well, and how we choose to serve them, form the crux of our unique narrative - our story.
Based on the trade-offs we take, our story elongates the runway for experiments that become our strategy to exist. Our business strategy defines our story and your story is your strategy to extend your lifetime in the market.

There are quite a few examples who have lived this up, but one that comes first to my mind is Basecamp. On this journey of 20 years, Basecamp has taken various modes to communicate this story that uses various formats from published books to ebooks to Twitter to the recent video commercial. The team publishes about how they run their company that will benefit their users.

I was wondering how would Basecamp would do it if they got founded in 2023. And I ran into something interesting. I came across Arc, a browser company from New York. I noticed a new hire at the company using the Arc browser. As he held a prestigious position, I was curious to see what it was all about. After using the product for a week, I found it to have some good features, but my childhood love for Chrome was not enough to switch over.

However, I stumbled upon some of Arc's videos, where their CEO vlogs about their board meetings, design team meetings, and more. It's not just cool, it's also smart. Now, I feel connected to the team at Arc, and I care about their next board meeting and their monetization model.

Arc's ability to create and distribute their story is different from Basecamp's, but both are authentic and true to who they are and how they see the world while building their product. I like Arc so much that I'm even okay if one of their bets doesn't go as expected. I'm more forgiving than I would be with my childhood love, Chrome.

In terms of brand building, companies like Basecamp and Arc have created authentic narratives that help differentiate their products, with each taking their own unique approach. Basecamp is opinionated and not trying to please everyone, while Arc has created an emotional connection with its users by sharing the story of how the company functions through vlogging.

With AI, "Build in Public" has a unique opportunity. If you have a rough boundary of your vision, the value of your AI product should become apparent by observing how users interact with the generic version of AI such as GPT-4. Paras Chopra is building Nintee in a similar manner. He understands that it is not the sum of averages in opinions his users are looking for, they are looking for advice based on their context. It is okay to be a spicy take rather than something that appeals to everyone. It will be great to train the AI model within a community. 

In the future, it will be interesting to explore how AI can aid the process of creating a brand story, and how trade-offs taken with AI within a company can prompt the production of a "saw dust asset." Perhaps AI can even produce the first draft of a company's unique narrative, which can then be refined by experts and shared with the world.