Marty Cagan, Author at Silicon Valley Product Group · Marty Cagan
articleprincipleBuild To Learn FAQ
27 April 2026Product
In our last article, we argued that especially in the age of AI, we are all builders, but that there is a very meaningful difference between building to learn (known as product discovery) versus building to earn (known as product delivery). Moreover, we argued that as the cost of product delivery continues to drop, the... The post Build To Learn FAQ appeared first on Silicon Valley Product Group.
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Apollo layer
What a founder can learn
Founder takeaway
Treat AI-enabled building as a learning tool before treating it as product delivery. Lower implementation costs make experimentation easier, but founders should still distinguish prototypes designed to test assumptions from production work designed to create reliable customer value.
Why it matters
When everyone can build faster, teams can also ship unvalidated ideas faster. Explicitly separating learning from earning helps founders preserve focus, reduce wasted delivery work, and commit resources only after important product assumptions have evidence.