Harnessing AI for User-Centric Product Development

Guillermo Rauch is the founder and CEO of Vercel, creators of v0 (one of the most popular AI app building tools), and the mind behind foundational JavaScript frameworks like Next.js and Socket.io. An open source pioneer and legendary engineer, Guillermo has built tools that power some of the internet’s most innovative products, including Midjourney, Grok, and Notion. His mission is to democratize product creation, expanding the pool of potential builders from 5 million developers to over 100 million people worldwide.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. How AI will radically speed up product development—and the three critical skills PMs and engineers should master now to stay ahead

2. Why the future of building apps is shifting toward prompts instead of code, and how that affects traditional product teams

3. Specific ways to improve your design “taste,” plus practical tips to consistently create beautiful, user-loved products

4. How Guillermo built a powerful app in under two hours for $20 (while flying and using plane Wi-Fi) that would normally take weeks and thousands of dollars in engineering time

5. The exact strategies Vercel uses internally to leverage AI tools like v0 and Cursor, enabling their team of 600 to ship faster and better than ever before

6. Guillermo’s actionable advice on increasing your product quality through rapid iteration, real-world user feedback, and creating intentional “exposure hours” for your team

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Where to find Guillermo Rauch:

• X: https://x.com/rauchg

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rauchg/

• Website: https://rauchg.com/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction to Guillermo Rauch

(04:43) v0's mission

(07:03) The impact and growth of v0

(15:54) The future of product development with AI

(19:05) Empowering engineers and product builders

(24:01) Skills for the future: coding, math, and eloquence

(35:05) v0 in action: real-world applications

(36:40) Tips for using v0 effectively

(45:46) Core skills for building AI apps

(49:44) Live demo

(59:45) Understanding how AI thinks

(01:04:35) AI integration and future prospects

(01:07:22) Building taste

(01:13:43) Limitations of v0

(01:16:54) Improving the design of your product

(01:20:09) The secret to product quality

(01:22:35) Vercel’s AI-driven development

(01:25:43) Guillermo's vision for the future

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Referenced:

• v0: https://v0.dev/

• Vercel: https://vercel.com/

• GitHub: https://github.com/

• Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/

• Next.js Framework: https://nextjs.org/

• Claude: https://claude.ai/new

• Grok: https://x.ai/

• Midjourney: https://www.midjourney.com

• SocketIO: https://socket.io/

• Notion’s lost years, its near collapse during Covid, staying small to move fast, the joy and suffering of building horizontal, more | Ivan Zhao (CEO and co-founder): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-notion-ivan-zhao

• Notion: https://www.notion.com/

• Automattic: https://automattic.com/

• Inside Bolt: From near-death to ~$40m ARR in 5 months—one of the fastest-growing products in history | Eric Simons (founder & CEO of StackBlitz): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-bolt-eric-simons

• v0 Community: https://v0.dev/chat/community

• Figma: https://www.figma.com/

• Git Commit: https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/saving-changes/git-commit

• What are Artifacts and how do I use them?: https://support.anthropic.com/en/articles/9487310-what-are-artifacts-and-how-do-i-use-them

• Design Engineering at Vercel: https://vercel.com/blog/design-engineering-at-vercel

• CSS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS

• Tailwind: https://tailwindcss.com/

• Wordcel / Shape Rotator / Mathcel: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wordcel-shape-rotator-mathcel

• Steve Jobs’s Ultimate Lesson for Companies: https://hbr.org/2011/08/steve-jobss-ultimate-lesson-fo

• Bloom Hackathon: https://bloom.build/

• Expenses Should Do Themselves | Saquon Barkley x Ramp (Super Bowl Ad): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1Tgsy7D0Jg

• Velocity over everything: How Ramp became the fastest-growing SaaS startup of all time | Geoff Charles (VP of Product): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/velocity-over-everything-how-ramp

• JavaScript: https://www.javascript.com/

• React: https://react.dev/

• Mapbox: https://www.mapbox.com/

• Leaflet: https://leafletjs.com/

• Escape hatches: https://react.dev/learn/escape-hatches

• Supreme: https://supreme.com/

• Shadcn: https://ui.shadcn.com/

• Charles Schwab: https://www.schwab.com/

• Fortune: https://fortune.com/

• Semafor: https://www.semafor.com/

• AI SDK: https://sdk.vercel.ai/

• DeepSeek: https://www.deepseek.com/

• Stripe: https://stripe.com/

• Vercel templates: https://vercel.com/templates

• GC AI: https://getgc.ai/

• OpenEvidence: https://www.openevidence.com/

• Paris Fashion Week: https://www.fhcm.paris/en/paris-fashion-week

• Guillermo’s post on X about making great products: https://x.com/rauchg/status/1887314115066274254

• Everybody Can Cook billboard: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/evilrabbit_activity-7242975574242037760-uRW9/

• Ratatouille: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382932/

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

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