Plan before the AI builds anything

The fastest way to waste an afternoon with AI is to describe what you want in one sentence and say "build it". It will. It'll build something confident and complete that solves a slightly different problem from yours, and you'll spend the rest of the day steering it back.

I now do the opposite. Before anything gets built, the AI interviews me, we agree on a short written plan, and only then does it start. It feels slower at the start and saves time by the end of the day. Several of the steps below I adapted from a framework by Nate Herk.

Why AI needs a plan more than a person does

A person you hire will ask questions when something is unclear. An AI usually fills the gap with a reasonable guess and keeps going. Each guess is small, and they add up. A plan is where you catch the guesses before they turn into work.

Step 1: Ask to be interviewed, one question at a time

Open a chat and say something like:

"I want to automate how I follow up with new leads. Before you suggest anything, interview me about it. Ask one question at a time and wait for my answer. Dig in when my answer is vague. Don't write a plan until I say we're done."

The "one question at a time" part matters. If you ask for questions, most AIs hand you a list of twenty, and you'll give twenty quick, shallow answers. One sharp question followed by a sharper follow-up gets much better material.

Good things for it to cover:

• What the task is, in your own words.
• Why you want it done, and what happens today.
• Who it's for.
• The steps, as you do them now.
• Any numbers: how often, how many, how long.
• What can't change, and what's fragile.

When you give a vague answer, the AI should push back with "give me an example" or "what's the actual number?". If it doesn't, tell it to.

Step 2: Ask "what if we just stopped doing this?"

Before automating anything, ask whether it needs doing at all. Some tasks turn out to exist only because they always have. If nothing breaks when you stop, you've saved the time without building anything.

Step 3: Map the job in five parts

If the task survives, describe it in five parts:

1. What starts it. A form is submitted, an email arrives, it's Monday morning.
2. Where the information comes from. Your inbox, a spreadsheet, your booking tool.
3. What happens to it. It's summarised, sorted, turned into a draft.
4. Where it branches. "If they're a past client, do this. If not, do that."
5. Where it ends up. A draft email, a row in a sheet, a message to you.

If you can't fill in all five, stop there. If you can't explain it to a person, you can't explain it to an AI. Sketch it on paper first and come back.

Step 4: Choose how much the AI decides

This is the decision people skip. There's a range:

• The AI suggests, and you decide every step.
• The AI drafts, and you review and edit before anything goes out.
• The AI runs it, and you check the results now and then.
• The AI handles it end to end.

Start at the lowest level that solves the problem. For anything that reaches a customer, that's usually "drafts". You can move up later, once you've watched it get things right for a few weeks. If part of the job doesn't need judgement at all, it doesn't need AI either. A simple rule or a template will do it more reliably.

Step 5: Tie it to one number

Ask yourself which of these it moves: more customers, more value from each customer, or less cost. Then name a specific measure, such as reply time, hours saved a week, or leads that get a follow-up. If you can't name one, think twice about building it.

Step 6: Have the AI write the plan, then read it

Now ask:

"Write a plan for this as a short list of small steps. After each step, say how we'll check it worked. Mark the points where you'll stop and wait for my go-ahead. Don't start building."

Read it properly. Look for:

• Steps that do more than you asked. Cut them.
• Anything that sends, publishes, deletes or spends money. Each of those should be a stop point.
• Steps you don't understand. Ask for them in plain English.

Only say yes when the plan matches what you meant. Then let it work through one step at a time, checking as it goes.

Step 7: Start with the boring version

When there's a choice, go for the simplest option that works. A saved prompt you run by hand beats a fully automatic system you don't trust yet. Run it yourself a few times, see where it goes wrong, then automate the parts that have proven reliable.

What to do next

Next time you're about to ask AI to build something, spend fifteen minutes being interviewed first. You'll catch the misunderstandings while they're still cheap.

Next in this track:

• Lock down your accounts before you connect AI, before your plan has it touching email or payments.
• Subscription vs API key: don't get billed by surprise, if your plan involves anything running on its own.

If you have a task you'd love off your plate but don't know where to start, ask me for the free audit. I'll help you work out which job to automate first and how much to let the AI decide.