Plan Before Build
Make the AI coding tool interrogate the requirements and produce a plan before it writes anything non-trivial.
Definition
When building with AI coding assistants, experienced builders front-load clarification: the tool is configured to switch into a planning mode for anything beyond a trivial change, asks questions until the feature is fully specified, and only then implements. Jonathan Wilke sets Cursor to auto-switch between build and plan mode based on the prompt, and for complex features runs Matt Pocock’s “grill me” skill, which asks as many questions as possible about what the feature is, what it should do, and what it should look like. The host contrasts this with his own “idea, then see it to feel it” style and notes that more experienced developers plan far more than he does. The payoff is fewer wrong first drafts and less rework, at the cost of a few minutes of answering questions up front.
Key Properties
- Planning is triggered by task complexity, not applied uniformly; trivial builds go straight to code.
- The tool, not the human, drives the interrogation, so gaps in the spec surface systematically.
- Distinct from traditional specs: the plan is conversational and produced minutes before the build.
- Pairs with voice prompting: a rough spoken brief plus a clarifying pass beats a polished written spec for speed.
Examples from Sources
| Example | Source |
|---|---|
| Outbid.lol’s first voice prompt named the stack and one rule; Cursor’s plan mode asked clarifying questions before building, then the site shipped after three hours | His project went viral this week (Outbid.lol: a 3-hour vibe-coded site doing $212k) |
| ”Grill me” skill used for complex Supastarter features to reach complete understanding before implementation | His project went viral this week (Outbid.lol: a 3-hour vibe-coded site doing $212k) |
Application to the business
For a solo Port Huron AI-automation consultancy this is both an internal delivery practice and a client-facing intake practice. Internally, configure the coding tool to plan before building any client automation so that scope, edge cases, and the approval boundaries described in Agentic Service Operations are explicit before code exists. Externally, the same “grill me” pattern is a discovery script: run a structured interrogation of the client’s workflow before quoting, which produces a written plan the client signs off on and protects a one-person shop from scope creep. The plan output can double as the deliverable spec in a fixed-price Productized Services (services-first, productize later) package.
In the Sources
| Source | Context |
|---|---|
| His project went viral this week (Outbid.lol: a 3-hour vibe-coded site doing $212k) | Guest’s Cursor plan-mode setting and use of the “grill me” skill; host’s admission that experienced builders plan more |
Related
Concepts: Agentic Service Operations, Productized Services (services-first, productize later), Charge From Day One Entities: Jonathan Wilke (Outbid, Supastarter), The Next New Thing