LinkedIn Post — AI-First Culture Starts With Every Leader Building
About a month ago, I wanted a simple answer to a simple question: how are our customers actually doing? The data existed across four systems. Assembling it took longer than the insight was worth.
So I built a dashboard. I described what I wanted, step by step, and an AI coding assistant wrote the code. The first prototype took four hours. Within two weeks it had iterated through a dozen versions. 200 people across five teams use it now.
But the dashboard was the easy part.
Before I wrote any code, I found a partner on the CS team. We did the PM work first: what does "healthy" actually mean? Which signals matter and which are noise? Getting those alignment questions right before building meant the first version was already something both teams could trust.
The SLA bot changed behavior more than the dashboard itself. People respond to specific nudges in the tools they already use. They ignore dashboards they have to remember to check.
Then three things happened that I did not expect:
Our CISO at Typeface noticed and leaned in. Instead of shutting it down, his team built shared infrastructure so anyone could build tools like this safely. That is the difference between one person building a tool and a company building a culture.
I started asking questions I would not have thought to ask before. When four systems feel like one fabric, you explore. You find things you were not looking for.
Then non-engineers started building their own tools. A PM built automated copy evaluations. Someone on the strategy team built a pricing calculator. Domain experts solving their own problems.
The companies pulling ahead are the ones where leaders are building. And if you are the exec setting the tone, the most important thing you can do is make it safe to try: fund the experiment, clear the compliance path, and celebrate the first ugly version.
Wrote the full story on Substack. Link in comments.