Build what only you can build

By Alan Goh · 01 Jul 2026 · 2 min read

Before a leader builds

Where should your week go?

Spend most hours on direction
Build small, to learn
Build for your own work
Hand bigger builds to your team
Ask what that time would do instead

Short answer

AI now lets almost anyone build software, senior leaders included. For a leader, the most valuable hours usually still go into direction: deciding what should be built, and why.

AI has made building software possible for almost anyone. A COO can put together a working app in a week, and it’s a genuinely satisfying thing to do.

The question worth asking is what that week would otherwise have gone into.

The skill gap used to decide for us

Before AI, most leaders couldn’t build an application, so whether they should never came up. Now they can, and the choice is theirs: how much of the week goes into building, and how much into the decisions only they can make.

Why building is so satisfying

Building gives you something that works today. Strategy is slower to show results; it can take a quarter or two to know whether a decision was right. It’s natural to be drawn to the work with the faster reward. Knowing that makes it easier to choose on purpose.

The rule

Build what only you can build.

For a senior leader, that is usually direction: what should exist, what good looks like here, which problems are worth solving, and what gets automated first. Your team, an internal owner with time for it, or a build partner can take on the construction.

Two good reasons for a leader to build

To learn. Leaders who have built a few small things with AI scope AI projects far better. They have a feel for what is realistic. A few small experiments are time well spent.

For your own work. A daily digest, a first-draft reply, the file you reformat every week. Small automations that serve your own work pay off quickly, and they are yours to build.

Building small, to learn and to support your own work, is a very good use of a leader’s time.

The test

Before you start on something bigger, ask: could my team build this with the same AI, and what would I do with that time instead?

In your department

Strategy & Planning: Your hours go furthest on deciding which problems are worth solving and what gets automated first. A few small builds of your own sharpen that judgement.
Operations & Delivery: A head of operations who has built one small automation scopes the team’s projects far more realistically. Build one for your own week, and give the bigger ones an owner.