In 1865, economist William Stanley Jevons observed something counterintuitive: more efficient steam engines cut coal consumption per unit by 75% and drove total consumption up dramatically. The Jevons Paradox. That's exactly what's happening in software development today. AI drives the cost of code generation to zero. A Code Crash that changes everything. The result isn't less software. It's an explosion.

In 2017, Matthias Schrader published "Transformational Products", which became the definitive reference for digital product development in the German-speaking world. Now he's back with the sequel. He describes how AI is fundamentally reshaping digital product development. And why a window is opening right now.

Those who missed the first wave of digitalization get a second chance. Maybe the last one. Because when code costs nothing, the only thing that matters is who asks the better questions. Schrader delivers with Soul, System, Speed the operating model for this restart: from the transformational spark through technical architecture to the intent-to-production pipeline. With case studies, concrete methods, and a clear-eyed look at the risks.

For everyone who wants to get it right this time.

Autorentext

Matthias Schrader is one of Germany's digital pioneers. In the mid-1990s he founded SinnerSchrader and built e-commerce solutions for startups whose products were ready for the stock market in record time.

SinnerSchrader went public in 1999, one of the few companies that didn't just survive the burst of the inernet bubble in 2000 but came out stronger. In 2006, Schrader founded the NEXT Conference, which established itself within a few years as Germany's leading conference on digital transformation. SinnerSchrader went on to support major DAX corporations in building digital products, with a team of over 500 consultants, designers, and software engineers.

In 2017 the author published "Transformational Products", which became the standard reference on digital product development. That same year, global management and technology consultancy Accenture acquired the company for a nine-figure sum. Schrader subsequently led Accenture Interactive/Song's business across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland until the end of 2022.

In 2024 he co-founded OH-SO Digital, an AI-native consultancy and agency, together with many longtime collaborators, with offices in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, and Prague.