diff --git a/test/conformance/gen-specsummaries.sh b/test/conformance/gen-specsummaries.sh
index 16d9a1280e2..f1376f20a11 100755
--- a/test/conformance/gen-specsummaries.sh
+++ b/test/conformance/gen-specsummaries.sh
@@ -23,7 +23,10 @@ KUBE_ROOT=$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")"/../.. && pwd -P)
 cd "${KUBE_ROOT}"
 
 # build ginkgo and e2e.test
-make WHAT='vendor/github.com/onsi/ginkgo/ginkgo test/e2e/e2e.test'
+# NOTE: we do *not* use `make WHAT=...` because we do *not* want to be running
+# make generated_files when diffing things (see: hack/verify-conformance-yaml.sh)
+# other update/verify already handle the generated files
+hack/make-rules/build.sh vendor/github.com/onsi/ginkgo/ginkgo test/e2e/e2e.test
 
 # dump spec
 ./_output/bin/ginkgo --dryRun=true --focus='[Conformance]' ./_output/bin/e2e.test -- --spec-dump "${KUBE_ROOT}/_output/specsummaries.json" > /dev/null