Let's set the scene:
You have this great idea and you spend the next weekend prompting away and have AI build the perfect application. Next weekend you release it and BAM the money starts rolling in!! It's pure profit because it's just you. No one to share the pie with.
Two weeks later you quit. No need to give a two weeks notice, you're about to be RICH!!!! You won't need to work anymore.
You've already started scoping out houses in Beverly Hills and the Hamptons, because you will need a place on each coast obviously.
You change your socials to CEO, Entrepreneur, Visionary, Though Leader.
You're flying high like an eagle...
If all that sounds too good to be true, it is. I'm sure there are people that have seen success like this. It’s what the AI industry and vibe coding promises you. What is actually going to happen is you're going to start something and get completely lost and give up because you were lied to about what AI can do right now.
My goal is to find that happy medium and give you the framework and help you to become more successful. You still might be like this ain't for me, but hopefully it'll be less frustrating getting to that point.
Let's start with the basics.
WARNING: You will be receiving homework!!!
You thought you could just read this on the toilet for enjoyment?!?!
Naw...That's not how this is going to go. I'm going to give you things to do so we can all learn together and follow along. Don't worry some of these things can probably be done on the toilet as well.
WTF is a PRD?
The first thing we're all going to learn are some terms to get us on the same page. First one is Product Requirement Document or PRD for short.
We could dedicate a full article on this topic but for the purposes of this discussion we will keep it simple. A PRD is a document that describes what the product is, what the purpose of it is, what it does, and how it does it. It also identifies your target market and potential challenges you foresee facing.
I hope you see the power of well written PRD. It helps align all the stakeholders on the project and also gives you a structured way do research for the project. Every company and every product manager writes PRD’s their own way. For what we are doing here you don't need to know how to write a PRD. What I want you to know is what the purpose of the PRD is, because we are going to have AI write our PRD. It is well equipped to write one for us if given the right information.
Time for your homework
I want you to create a portfolio website. Why are we building one?
It is a basic website and should give you a quick win
Requirements for this should be very easy to come up with
I know you have been wanting to build one so why not start now
I will also be building with you along the way and sharing my progress as well.
Now GO!!!
I'm just kidding. I am not going to leave you like that without giving you a roadmap to success.
Here is exactly what I want you to do. you should be able to get something going for free if you follow what I tell you
1. Plan: I want you to think of what you want your portfolio website to look and feel like. Use other websites as inspiration. See what you like and what you don't like. Get creative. This is YOUR website!
2. Create PRD: Take your requirements that you just came up with and go to your favorite Large Language Model (LLM) website. My favorite is Claude. But there are many more. Here is a list for you. I say try them all out and look at how they reply back to you and which one you are vibing with the most.
There are many more but those are some good ones that I have used extensively and can recommend
One word of warning, none of your chats are private with any of these models so please do not enter anything that you do not want anyone to find. We really should not have any issues with this assignment but I still wanted to get that out there.
When you are prompting that LLM let it know that you want generate a PRD using the requirements you have laid out for your personal portfolio website. Then at the end of the prompt tell it to ask you any clarifying questions it has to help it create the PRD. If you only take one thing from reading this it should be this trick. This one question alone is a game changer with LLM's. The reason for this is because LLM's don't do great with vagueness. You get a better output with clear and detailed instructions. So when you tell it to ask you any clarifying questions it helps fill in the details that you might not have thought of.
Here is an example prompt you can use:
You are a seasoned product manager looking to create a PRD for a personal portfolio website. Please ask me any clarifying questions you have one at a time. Below/attached are my requirements. Please write the PRD in MD format.
3. Save: Once you have your PRD, copy and save it to a document on your computer. Preferably in markdown format (.md). The reason for this is LLM's like .md files the best. Think of it like speaking to it in its native tongue.
4. Build: Now go to the coding platform of your choice. Here are 2 that I recommend if you are a beginner.
The reason I like these platforms is because you don't have to worry about the code structure etc. right now and you can just tell it what you want and see the final result in the preview. Once you have a website you are happy with you can actually deploy them using those platforms for a fee or use other platforms like Vercel. But that is not the whole point of all of this. The point of all of this is for you to build a solid foundation that we will be building upon.
I do have one request of you. If you do complete this exercise if you could share a screenshot, or URL with me so we can celebrate together! And if you allow it I can share it in my upcoming newsletters to inspire others.
Throughout this process if you need any help or have any questions please reach out to me. I would be happy to help!
So what are you waiting for go and build something!
How can you support others:
Please consider donating to the less fortunate. This is a reminder not only for you but also for myself.
or donate to a charity of your choice. A little bit goes a long way.
How you can support me:
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