← AI Salon x Dev Korea

The six-question plan.

I answer these before I ask any agent to build anything. About 80% of my time goes into this plan. Agents can't read your mind, so write your answers down first.

  1. 1Who is it for?Mine for /salon: The people at AI Salon tonight.
  2. 2What's the one job?Mine for /salon: Collect their email and what they're building.
  3. 3When is it done?Mine for /salon: Live before tonight.
  4. 4How will I check it?Mine for /salon: The form works on my phone.
  5. 5How will people find it?Mine for /salon: A QR code on my last slide.
  6. 6How does it make money?Mine for /salon: None, it's a giveaway.

How I get to the answers.

I start in the user's shoes. What hurts? What are they looking for? What makes them buy? Why do they have this problem at all? When I rebuilt I Can Tell Time, I asked why at every step. Why would a teacher or parent look for the app? Why would they download it? Why would they keep it open?

I look for the smallest version that's still valuable to them. The app gets one mission, and anything that gets in its way is scope creep. I don't start with a list of screens. I follow the steps a user takes and build only the screens those steps need.

At this stage I never look at competitors. They pull you in the wrong direction. I start from a clean sheet and keep asking why.

I brain dump in my journal or in Apple Notes. Every idea and every angle, with no filter. Then I talk it through with Claude, Grok and Codex, because different AIs see different holes. Their notes go into docs in the repo, so every agent starts with all of it.

AI comes in last. I use it to clean up my thoughts, poke holes in ideas and expand the vague ones. The raw thinking is mine. That's my rule, and I don't always follow it.

I sleep on it. Planning can take weeks, and a great idea can look bad after a night's sleep. Every hour here saves a lot of time later. Set a deadline, though, and don't plan forever.

If you have to force an idea, it's the wrong idea. If you don't feel connected to it, nobody else will. Money is question 6 for a reason: build real value first, and the market will tell you the price.

Then turn the answers into one prompt.

Fill in the brackets and paste it into your agent.

The template

Build a [what] for [who].
One job: [job].
Done when: [done].
Check: [check].
Found by: [found].
Money: [money].

Mine for /salon

Build a signup page for the people at AI Salon tonight.
One job: collect their email and what they're building.
Done when: it's live before tonight.
Check: the form works on my phone.
Found by: a QR code on my last slide.
Money: none, it's a giveaway.

An agent built this page's first version from a prompt like this.

Tip: let the agent ask first.

When I start a feature, I add this line to the prompt. It's word for word from my own chats. If the agent is missing something, it asks me before it builds.

When I start a feature

understand what we are trying to accomplish, then interview me if you have questions.