An update to One Brain, Many Hands from 2017.
In 2017 I wrote that marketing had outgrown what one person could do. One person should lead the brand. That person needs good people and partners to get the work done.
AI changes part of that. One person can now do a lot more alone: research, drafts, analysis, design options, even some code. Work that used to need several people can often be done by one.
It doesn’t change who leads. Someone still has to decide what the brand stands for, which goals matter, and what good looks like. AI can make the work. It can’t decide which work is worth doing.
In 2017 the problem was volume. There was more good work than one person had time for. Now the problem is judgment. When you can make almost anything fast, the hard part is picking what to make and knowing when it’s right.
The people around the leader still matter. Their job is moving from making things to checking them. They also need to know the customer well enough to see when something is off.
What does your team spend most of its time on? Making things, or deciding what’s worth making?
One person still leads. Spend more of your time deciding.
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