Advocates for 'context engineering'—designing systems to provide AI with the right information and tools—as the key discipline for leveraging AI in product development.
Believes AI democratizes product exploration by making 'wasted work' (building many un-shipped ideas) affordable for all companies, not just industry giants.
Argues that product development is shifting from a linear 'assembly line' to a collaborative 'jazz band' model due to AI tools enabling fluid interaction between roles.
Maintains that visual design tools like Figma remain essential for visual thinking, and that human 'taste-based' skills in copy and layout will become more critical as AI automates execution.
Promotes a 'full stack prompt' method for prototyping, which combines functional requirements, visual context (wireframes), and data context (JSON) to generate high-fidelity, modular outputs.
Traditional / Pre-AI Era
Describes product development as a linear 'assembly line' process, where extensive prototyping ('wasted work') was a privilege reserved for large, successful companies.
Current / AI-Native Transition
Articulates a shift towards a collaborative 'jazz band' model, where AI tools democratize prototyping and enable fluid interaction between product, design, and engineering.
Emerging Practice
Advocates for 'context engineering' and a 'full stack prompt' approach, using tools like Claude with MCP servers and structured JSON data to create high-fidelity, modular prototypes.
Future State
Predicts that as AI automates execution, human 'taste-based craft' in areas like copy and layout will become the primary differentiator for successful products.
▶Context Engineering as a Foundational AI SkillMay 2026
Mehta defines and champions 'context engineering' as the practice of designing systems that provide AI models with the necessary information and tools to perform a task. This involves a 'full stack prompt' approach, combining functional requirements, visual context from wireframes, and structured data from JSON files to produce high-fidelity, modular outputs.
This theme suggests that the future competitive advantage for product teams will lie less in prompt crafting and more in their ability to build robust systems that continuously feed AI the right context, making it a systems-thinking and architecture challenge.
▶The 'Jazz Band' Model: AI's Impact on Team CollaborationMay 2026
Mehta posits that AI tools are dissolving the rigid, sequential 'assembly line' workflow of product development. He advocates for a more collaborative 'jazz band' model where product, design, and engineering interact fluidly and non-linearly, with prototyping as a central, shared activity.
Investors should look for companies whose organizational structures and toolchains are adapting to this more flexible, less siloed model, as they are likely to innovate and iterate faster than those stuck in traditional workflows.
▶The Democratization of 'Wasted Work'May 2026
Mehta argues that AI prototyping tools make it feasible for any company to engage in extensive exploration, or 'wasted work'—building numerous ideas that never ship. He frames this not as inefficiency, but as a valuable creative process that was previously a luxury afforded only by the most successful companies.
This lowers the barrier to entry for high-quality product discovery, potentially leveling the playing field and allowing smaller, more agile teams to out-innovate incumbents by exploring a wider solution space at a lower cost.
▶The Ascendance of Taste and CraftMay 2026
As AI increasingly handles the mechanical aspects of execution in product development, Mehta predicts that human-centric, 'taste-based' skills will become more important differentiators. He specifically calls out craft in copy, layout, and typography as crucial for creating products that feel 'dialed in' versus generic.
This indicates a potential premium on talent with strong aesthetic and communication skills, suggesting that companies who invest in design and product marketing craft, in addition to AI engineering, will build more resonant and defensible products.