Projects

You're going to build a real web app for one thing you wish existed, and put it live on the internet where actual people can use it. The skill is scope: deciding the ONE job it does well, cutting everything else, then shipping it and fixing what breaks when a real person tries it. That's the core of software engineering, turning an idea into a working thing and deciding what not to build, and doing one tells you fast whether shipping a live product is your kind of work.

Generate a hundred AI images, then prove you've got the eye to pick the twelve that belong together. You'll lock one signature look and art-direct a series so tight a stranger can tell at a glance it's all one body of work. Making images is easy now; the taste to choose the right twelve is the whole skill, and it's yours.

You're going to design a reusable Notion template that other people can duplicate and actually run their lives with: a student planner, a college-essay tracker, an internship-application CRM. The skill is systems-design: deciding what to standardize, what to leave open for the user to fill in, and what to cut, then getting real people to adopt it. That's the durable, systems side of design, and doing one tells you fast whether designing things other people build on is your kind of work.

You're going to write a real Product Requirements Document for a feature you care about, then have AI play three people who tear into it from their own angles: an engineer, a designer, an exec. You decide which objections to take and which to push back on, then revise. That's the actual product-manager muscle, deciding what to build and defending the call when smart people disagree, and doing one tells you fast whether owning that kind of decision is your kind of work.

You're going to take a real screen that frustrates people (a confusing checkout, a cluttered app, a signup that makes you give up), diagnose what's actually failing the user, and redesign it to fix THAT. The skill is product judgment: deciding what 'good' means for a real user's problem, committing to a tradeoff (faster checkout might mean fewer options on screen), and defending every change by how it helps, including the boring loading, empty, and error states most designs skip. That's the durable side of design, the part that's about decisions not decoration, and doing one tells you fast whether solving user problems is your kind of work.