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how i ai Issue #6 · 6 min read

Principle 2: How I build

I have built workflows, websites, micro tools, and replaced a few Saas for my work. This is how I approach all of them.

Vikra Vardhan

Hello Modern Marketer,

Nerding out with AI taught me 7 principles that are now my default mode in marketing with AI.

All the marketing initiatives I took on my projects are based on these core concepts. It’s my holy book of how I approach the AI marketing game.

In this series, I share short and crisp principles with you, one a day.

Principle 2: How I Build

If you have only a minute, I’d say,

“Don’t one-shot your workflow or marketing tools. Build it feature by feature, starting with the most important feature that solves your core problem. Then build on top of it.”

If you want a detailed why and how, here goes:

When I just started out with AI, “mega prompts” were a thing. Creators shared these long, detailed prompts, and we’re supposed to just add our details and hit enter.

These prompts usually work decently for research, content campaigns, or any kind of strategy or theoretical work.

But mega prompts aren’t as helpful when I want to build workflows, tools, etc.

When I say tools or workflows, I mean use cases like these:

… and many personal dashboards, custom alerts, websites, n8n flows, etc.

In my early days of vibe marketing, one-shotting workflows was my default.

My “mega” prompts included:

  • What workflow should do

  • Different features and their use cases

  • Branding

  • What are the long-term and short-term goals

  • KPIs of the tool

…all at once.

All this is important information and will eventually turn into files for my Claude code, Codex, or whatever top models are at the time, so they have all the context.

But if I have to start vibe marketing today, these will be my steps:

To make this easier, imagine we are building a content-repurposing agent that automatically repurposes your newsletter content and posts on X/Twitter.

Step 1: Write down the features. Think of all the things you want your agent to do, even if it feels far-fetched at the moment.

Step 2: Drop all the features into three columns:

  • Core Solution: You should only drop one feature here. This feature solves your core problem. In our example, it’s turning newsletter content into 7-10 tweets.

  • Supporting Solutions: Think of 4-5 features that make your core feature more efficient. For the repurposing agent, features include automatically fetching newsletter posts, posting tweets, and reading analytics. 

  • Add-ons and improvements: It’s the “nice to have” features or the files that constantly improve your workflow. Think tweet templates, setting up self-improving loops, etc.

Step 3: Build in this order:

Sketch made by yours truly

PS: Your core solution should just work. It need not be perfect. Perfectionism comes at the “add-ons and improvements” stage.

Did I deliver value for you today?

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Do try this method next time and write to me with your thoughts. I’m excited to see you ship!

Love,
Vikra.