The Maintenance Gap: Who Owns This After It Ships?

For the last few weeks I have been writing about how AI is making it possible for anyone to build their own software. Clone a SaaS feature you actually need. Replace that subscription you have been paying for. Ship something in an afternoon that would have taken a team a quarter two years ago.

I meant all of that. I still do.

But I left something out.

After I build it, I have to maintain it.

The bar to create something has dropped. The bar to support it, update it, fix it at 2am, and eventually retire it has not moved one inch. Every new thing you ship is a new thing someone owns. And owning software is a very different job than building it.

This is actually the thing that gives SaaS companies a real moat right now, and I think most of them do not realize it. You are not just paying for features. You are paying someone else to carry the maintenance burden. The moment you build your own, that burden is yours.

The teams I have seen navigate this well are not just asking "can we build this?" They are asking "who owns this after it ships?" They ask it before a single line of code gets written.

That question changes everything about what you decide to build at all.

So. If your team is shipping more than ever right now, I think that is excellent. I also think it is worth a conversation about what happens next.

What does your team do to close that gap?

Originally posted on LinkedIn: "The Maintenance Gap: Who Owns This After It Ships?"