I spent part of the long weekend vibe coding. (Nerd alert.)
Somewhere between tinkering and building, something hit me; these tools have quietly crossed a threshold.
For the first time, people like me, the non-engineers, can build not everything, but a surprising amount of what we’ve always wanted to.
And that’s where a new challenge emerges:
When you could build dozens of things, what should you build?
Here’s the way I’ve been thinking about it:
1. Small Wins: Simple, highly useful tools
-What they are: Quick automations or utilities that solve small, specific problems in your workflow.
-Examples: Auto-generating meeting follow-up notes, pulling key metrics into a daily Slack update, batch-renaming files, automatically tagging inbound leads.
-Pros: Fast to create, instantly useful, low risk.
-Cons: Can become a scattered set of disconnected tools that don’t scale together.
2. Strategic Builds: Medium complexity, high-value solutions
-What they are: Tools that replace or extend existing SaaS products, or automate more complex processes. Usually it takes one to two weeks to build.
-Examples: A custom CRM dashboard, automated competitor monitoring, internal project management tailored to your workflow.
-Pros: More impactful, replace real costs, can become long-term assets.
-Cons: Require more thought, testing, and upkeep.
3. Deep Builds: Complex solutions that fully automate or replace a major workflow
-What they are: Projects that integrate across multiple tools, handle a process from start to finish, or replace a single, expensive SaaS product.
-Examples: Building your own analytics dashboard that pulls from every data source, creating a client onboarding system that runs without manual input, automating your marketing campaign setup from creative to reporting.
-Pros: Potential for huge efficiency gains, cost savings, and differentiation.
-Cons: Most challenging to scope and complete, higher likelihood of needing ongoing tweaks. High likelihood of failure.
It's amazing how quickly the execution bottleneck has moved from “Can I build this?” to “Should I build this?”
When the tools get this powerful, discernment becomes the rarest skill.
Not every idea should be built, but the right ones, built fast, can change a lot.