Everyone knows silos are bad. We’re supposed to break them down. Work together towards an outcome. Be more collaborative. All solid advice. We should do this.
But with AI hype in full effect, everyone is afraid. Afraid for their jobs. Afraid for the devaluing of their discipline. Afraid for the loss of quality, competence and craft.
The “UX is dead”, “Product is dead”, “Coding is dead” posts are everywhere. Overwhelm and disillusionment are hard to avoid.
Well, if you can’t beat them … The trouble is, this can end up with you accidentally digging a moat around your silo!
“We have integrated X domain specific tool(s) with Y MCP server(s) to achieve Z outcome. ”
In theory that sounds great. And the robots love us! The trouble is most people in the business have no access to your tool(s) or the MCP server(s).
They care about getting the outcome they need with as little friction as possible. They also want to contribute. They have valuable insights, feedback, input. By ‘tool-ifying’ the solution, we’ve made our deliverables easier, but business collaboration harder.
Ironically, deliverables are the easiest thing to create. Hence AI can do them, in what looks like a faster way. They are also the hardest thing to make useful and correct. They’re even harder to keep relevant. It’s the discovery, definition, design and delivery that make them fit for purpose. And the ongoing alignment with needs that keep them relevant. This is still a ‘people’ game.
To humans our ‘tool-ified’ process makes us less open, easy to work with, less part of the solution.
How about we tear down the silo and put up a big, open tent? With a reception area to guide people, a community space to grow together, and a clear and open set of guides on:
Open source communities have been doing this for years. It’s not new, it’s well understood. The patterns are there. We should learn from them.