John Cutler · 3 min read · Product Execution
TBM 437: AI and the Recontextualization Tax
Read the original on cutlefish.substack.com →
AI can dramatically cut the cognitive load of translating complex reality into audience-friendly views by doing the recontextualization and exception-hunting. This lets teams tailor outputs for multiple stakeholders without forcing everyone into a single format, improving both strategy and day-to-day execution.
Key Takeaways
- AI excels at recontextualization and exception hunting when it has current context.
- It enables audience-specific outputs without requiring a single, uniform workflow across the organization.
- AI reduces the recontextualization tax, helping avoid last-minute ‘winging it’ and ad hoc reports.
- Teams can use flexible formats (GitHub issues, Google Docs, swimlanes, outcome metrics) while AI translates for each audience.
- Focus on building skills to translate workflows into client-empowering language, rather than forcing rigid tool usage.
Excerpt
Here’s an area where I am optimistic about AI (for now, at least). So many companies flatten things to meet the needs of the person with 1) the most power, 2) the lowest appetite for detail/seeing real-world complexity, and/or 3) the least amount of time to actually work through details and nuance. For good (and less good) reasons, a CEO says, “This is too in the weeds. There’s no way we are doing this much!” That one statement will kick off one of a couple of things: Investing huge amounts of time in flattening reality to get that report to…