Stage 5 of 9
Rapid Prototyping
Go from idea to a tested demo in days, then turn what you learned into a spec.
Level: Intermediate About 2 weeks at 6 hours a week 5 articles
By the end of this stage you can
- Validate an AI feature with a prompt-first or Wizard-of-Oz prototype
- Ship a streaming Next.js demo that handles every stop reason
- Turn prototype findings into a buildable spec
Articles
- 5.1 Prompt-first prototyping Prototype an AI feature with nothing but prompts and real inputs before writing app code, and learn whether the core idea works in an afternoon. Level: Intermediate 8 min Completed
- 5.2 Wizard-of-Oz tests for AI features Test an AI feature with real users before building it by having a human play the AI, and learn what people actually need from the experience. Level: Intermediate 6 min Completed
- 5.3 A day-one demo in Next.js Build a working AI feature demo in one day with Next.js and the Anthropic SDK, with a server route, streaming UI and handling for every stop reason. Level: Intermediate 10 min Completed
- 5.4 Structured outputs and tool calls in prototypes Get reliable JSON and actions from a model in prototypes, with schema-based structured outputs, simple tool calls and validation of what the model returns. Level: Intermediate 10 min Completed
- 5.5 Turning a prototype into a spec Turn what a prototype taught you into a buildable spec, with findings, decisions, the first eval cases and the open risks before engineering starts. Level: Intermediate 9 min Completed