Everyone draws the value chain like this: Idea → AI → Product. That’s not how it works. Or? The real version has a phase in between that nobody talks about — the messy middle. That’s where the actual decisions get made. Which problem even matters? Who’s the real customer? What gets built, and what gets cut? Which feedback is signal and which is noise? AI is genuinely good at generating options. Thousands of ideas, designs, copy variants, code snippets — no problem. What it can’t do is tell ...