This worksheet adapts the framework from Homebrew Club’s app-idea episode. The stages are options to earn through use. A useful first version can remain the final version.
1. Prove the job
In the episode I start in a terminal with Claude Code. If you haven’t used one, start with a manual or chat-based rehearsal of the same job.
- What do I put in?
- What useful thing comes out?
- When did I last need that result?
- Can I try it with five examples before building an interface?
For a notes tool: give it five non-sensitive notes and ask it to find what helps with a project you’re considering. Check whether it points to actual notes and whether any connection is useful. That’s a better first question than what the app icon should look like.
2. Fit the place you’ll use it
Only add an interface when you’ve found a real obstacle. Perhaps you need to capture something on your phone, or repeated copying is getting in the way.
- Where am I when I need it?
- What is the one interaction the current version makes awkward?
- What is the smallest surface that would fix that?
- Can the rest of the system stay as it is?
3. Consider the complete application
Use the small version over a couple of weeks, or enough real occasions to judge an infrequent task. Write down when you used it without reminding yourself to.
Before building more, name who will maintain it, what needs backing up, and why the present arrangement is no longer enough. If those answers are weak, keep using the version that already works.
Turn your idea into a small test
Help me reduce this personal app idea to one useful test.
My idea:
The last real situation when I needed it:
One example input:
The useful output I wanted:
First propose a version I can test in a chat or with local files. Name what we
are leaving out. Define a check using my example and the evidence that would
justify adding a simple interface later. Ask about missing information before
writing code. Do not assume I need accounts, a database, or a public website.If the notes example is your problem
My Zettelkasten build page describes the released skill. Its public README has installation instructions. The phase-one version uses local Markdown and Python 3; Claude Code integration is optional if you use the command-line helper directly.
Start with a few notes and one retrieval question. Installing the skill is setup. Finding an old idea at the right moment is the result to look for.