Research a real buyer and problem, compare SaaS, open source, and custom software, then brief one testable MVP without building a platform first.
Building has become faster. Finding a buyer with a problem worth solving still takes work. Brownsmith's prototype work begins with the user, their current workaround, competitors, and the cost of leaving the problem alone.
You will decide whether the first answer is a better process, an existing SaaS product, an open-source application, or a small custom build. If a build is justified, you will define one complete workflow and the evidence it must produce.
The result is a build brief a developer, agency, or coding agent can estimate, including acceptance criteria and reasons to stop or change direction.
Use this guide’s decisions and templates with your team or the developer, agency, or coding agent doing the work. Keep the scope clear and agree what evidence you will use to review the result.
Non-technical founders working with consultants, developers, agencies, freelancers, or AI coding agents.
No engineering experience is required. Bring a product idea, proposal, or existing software decision to examine.
Put the guide to work
Before commissioning an MVP, write down what you learned from people who may use or buy it and what would change your mind about building. Turn one customer problem into a brief a developer, agency, or coding agent can estimate and build.
Illustrative product or service: A founder's appointment-booking service for local businesses
Use the same fictional request-tracker project through planning, building, testing and deployment. Each stage gives you an artifact to carry into the next.
The bd-guide-skillsfolder turns this path into a reusable skill. Open its SKILL.md, follow your assistant's skill-loading instructions, and ask it to guide your own small app through the four stages. Read the scope and permissions before use.
Marketing behavior and decision frameworks — Clarify who needs the app, the task they want to complete, and the evidence behind the offer.
Continue the decision path
Research the user and the current workaround. Decide whether a process change, SaaS, open source, or a custom MVP is justified.