OPA: One Prompt Away

I've always wanted to build and launch my own product. Over the years I collected a bunch of ideas, some I genuinely thought were great.

Then I sat with how far AI has come, and I had a simple but uncomfortable thought: I need to go back through every idea and check if it's still an idea, or if it's now just OPA — One Prompt Away.

What OPA means

Not "is this a good idea." More like: could someone just prompt this into existence this weekend?

If yes, the idea alone was never going to be your edge. The prompt was always going to be enough.

Running the check

I went through my whole list with that lens. Some ideas that felt special for years turned out to be one good prompt away from existing. Others still needed something AI can't shortcut — real data, real relationships, real trust, real taste.

That's the split that matters now. Not new idea vs old idea. OPA vs not-OPA.

Why it matters

I think every product owner needs to run this check on their backlog, not just on whatever they're dreaming up next. It's not about killing ideas — it's about knowing which ones are actually worth your time to build, and which ones you could just... prompt.

So next time you're excited about an idea, ask yourself first: is this OPA?

To be clear, OPA doesn't mean the idea is bad or that it won't work. It just means the idea alone isn't the hard part anymore.