Many Small Steps for Robots, One Giant Leap for Mankind

This essay contrasts two fundamental approaches to robotics product development: the "Giant Leap" strategy versus incremental progress through "Small Steps." The key challenge addressed is how to build viable robotics companies in a market where most funding flows to moonshot projects promising general AI robots that can perform any task, while practical deployment remains limited.

Standard Bots, co-founded by Evan Beard, represents the "Small Steps" approach. Instead of pursuing general-purpose humanoid robots, they focus on AI-native industrial robots for manufacturing and logistics. Their strategy involves building a full-stack solution that enables average manufacturing workers to train robot AI models through accessible data collection, annotation, and deployment tools. They deliberately target the middle ground between simple automation (repetitive motion replay) and full autonomy (general physical intelligence), where significant economic value exists today.

The core insight is understanding the "gradient of variability" - the spectrum of complexity in real-world robotic tasks based on factors like environment conditions, task complexity, human interaction requirements, and error recovery needs. Rather than waiting for a breakthrough that enables robots to handle maximum variability, Standard Bots systematically expands their robots' operational design domain through real-world deployments.

For product managers, the key takeaway is that successful platform strategies often involve resisting the allure of the largest addressable market in favor of building sustainable businesses in underserved segments. Early customer deployment provides crucial learning about where your solution breaks down, enabling systematic capability expansion rather than hoping for technological breakthroughs.