Choosing the problem
Days 1–2. Four filters that kill an idea before it costs you a year.
Anyone can build now.almost nobodycan build the right thing.
The 14-day process I use to figure out what's actually worth building, before wasting a year on it.
47 CONSUMER SURVEYS •12 SIZE CHARTS TRAINED •21 BRANDS MATCHED •3 YEARS AT JPMORGAN CHASE •SHIPPED SOLO •47 CONSUMER SURVEYS •12 SIZE CHARTS TRAINED •21 BRANDS MATCHED •3 YEARS AT JPMORGAN CHASE •SHIPPED SOLO •47 CONSUMER SURVEYS •12 SIZE CHARTS TRAINED •21 BRANDS MATCHED •3 YEARS AT JPMORGAN CHASE •SHIPPED SOLO •
The shift nobody adjusted to
Building used to be the bottleneck
01
When building was expensive, bad ideas died early. The cost did the filtering.
02
Building is nearly free now. Nothing filters. We're about to be buried in products that work perfectly and solve nothing.
03
The bottleneck moved. It used to be can you build it. Now it's do you know what to build.
"I thought I was solving a measurement problem. I was actually looking at a dignity problem wearing a measurement problem's clothes."
From Phase Three
Six phases, fourteen days
What'sinside
Secondary research
Days 3–5. Where the truth actually lives, and it isn't market size.
Talking to humans
Days 6–8. My full discovery script, adapted from sales.
Synthesis
Days 9–11. Turning notes into a decision. The part that can't be automated.
Validation
Days 12–14. Signal versus vanity, and how to tell them apart.
The kill decision
The section nobody else writes.
This is for you if
- —
You have real domain expertise and were told you need a CS degree to build
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You're a designer who wants to build for yourself instead of someone else's company
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You've been "researching" an idea for six months
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You can already use AI tools but keep building the wrong thing
And this is not for you if
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You want a guarantee it will work. I can promise you a real answer in eight weeks, not that the answer is yes.
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You want someone to build it for you. You build. I make sure you're building the right thing.
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You're looking for passive income or a quick flip. This is slower and less glamorous than that.
- —
You haven't picked a field you already know well. Domain expertise is the input I can't give you.
- —
You want to raise money before you've talked to a single user. We'd spend week one undoing that.
- —
You can't give this eight hours a week. It won't work and I'd rather say so now.
Go one step further
Some people don't want the playbook. They want a partner.
Her Own Thing: The Founder Intensive is eight weeks, one-on-one. Founding rate at $3,000.
hey
I'm Anaïs.
Four years ago I was making $17 an hour at a restaurant in Miami, applying to 100+ UX/Product Design jobs a week between shifts. A few months later, I was a product designer at one of the largest banks in the world. Now I'm building in fintech.
I don't write code. I built and shipped a Chrome extension by myself with one working hand while the other healed from surgery. Then I killed it, on purpose, for reasons I explain in the playbook.
I also completed an executive program at MIT Sloan on the business strategy implications of AI. I mention it because everyone teaching this right now learned it in the last eighteen months. I've been thinking about it longer than that.
This is the process that got me here.
Read it before you buy it
Get thekill decisionfree.
Phase Six of the playbook. The chapter about walking away from a product that worked, and how to know when it's time. Sent instantly.
No spam. One email a week after that, and you can leave whenever.
now go
If you don't build your dream life, someone will pay you to build theirs.
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