Ipek | Product & AI

PM building real apps with AI - no code, no team 🚀
Sharing every win, fail & prompt. #buildinpublic 🌱

YouTube & Instagram: @ipekbuilds

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

In 1998, I had an idea to put barcode scanners in supermarkets so people could self-checkout.
I never acted on it. I thought "people will just steal things."
A decade later, that exact system appeared in supermarkets everywhere.

That moment defined the next 25 years of my life🧵

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

@lucaardito To me, it frames the goal better if a verb is used.

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

1/ I write each strategic theme as a goal that starts with a verb.

"Customer focus" is a topic which does not mean anything unless we link it to a result we want to achieve. Linking it to "move our support to self-service" makes it tangible.

#ProductManagement #BuildInPublic

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

@tmhyt1 Yes, this way it is easier to define the Objectives and Key results.

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

3/ That app goal is an OKR (objective and key results).

The theme has no key results of its own. It uses that objective's, each with a metric. Results flow up one chain. No second set of numbers to keep aligned.

#OKRs

SAFe is a registered trademark of Scaled Agile, Inc.

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

2/ In SAFe, a strategic theme is a business goal: one of a few that set a business apart.

Last week I decided on one for the app I'm building. Two tests: could any company have written it? Can I link a measurable app goal to it? If either fails, it isn't a theme yet.

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

@BoraOzkentNSDQ Yapay zekayı sadece chatbot olarak kullananlarla, kurcalamaya başlayıp kendi günlük hayatına adapte etmeyi başaranlar arasındaki fark bundan sonra daha da hızlanarak açılacak.

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

@manvankaliber Now I know why I’m stuck!

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

5/ And Done means tested and decided, not built.

An idea reaches Done once I've made the call, even when the answer is "stop". That's how SAFe sees an epic too.

Does your board show what you're testing?

(SAFe is a registered trademark of Scaled Agile, Inc.)

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

1/ Every idea on my board carries its hypotheses, each with a live verdict.

#BuildInPublic #ProductManagement

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

4/ The benefit: I see what I'm betting on, not only what's in progress.

When a research run brings new evidence, an agent updates the verdicts.
Evidence changes a belief, not only a column.

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

@Bencera When do you start talking about your app publicly? After validation, or from day one while you build? Waiting protects you from copycats, but starting early gives you time to build an audience.

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

How do you estimate cost of delay without usage data? A reader asked me this on X.

My answer: start with time criticality. Some value has a date.

A toy that misses Christmas loses its season, however good it is.

Ask: what do we lose if this ships later?

#ProductManagement

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

@manvankaliber Oh, well done! How did you do that?
I still have 25 followers. I followed you!

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

This week will go down in history as the beginning of a new era: the war between good and bad AI agents.

#BlackOctober #AIAgents

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

@IT_unhinged No brain works without food. A cafeteria menu is the most important thing in running a company.

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

@nickling017 Yes, nobody asked them to audit anything. Re-reading the sources turned out to be the audit. Now it’s a step on purpose.

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

1/ Two of my AI agents, an app expert and a software architect, found mistakes in their own research. I had asked them only to tidy it up.

#BuildInPublic #AIAgents

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

@Joshua_WD Only when the process makes them look again 😄 Without that step, the mistakes would still be there.

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

@thmsrx 2/ That header became its template. Then two agents turned their earlier notes into these files. It told one to re-check its sources. The other wasn’t told, but couldn’t honestly write “Last verified: today” without looking. I think that’s why both re-read their sources.

[Ipek | Product & AI @ipekbuilds]

@thmsrx 1/ It started with one word. I told my orchestrator agent to keep research in files, dated, with an owner named at the top. It turned “dated” into three header lines: Created, Last verified, and Re-verify by (the owner proposes a date and says why).