Discovery & scoping, foundation
Eric Migicovsky · Y Combinator, 2019. Free
Prepare conversations that uncover behavior and existing workarounds.
Used in chapter 2: Discover the real problem
How to use it
- Focus your reading
- Focus on specific past events, current solutions, and user pain.
- Put it to work
- Bring back a workflow timeline and direct evidence of a recurring problem.
- Before you start
- Use as a quick alternative before The Mom Test, not another mandatory introduction.
Video title checked; playback unverified. Reviewed 2026-10-30
Agents & tool design, practitioner
Dex Horthy · HumanLayer, Living document. Free
Reason about workflow state and recovery without adopting an opaque orchestration stack.
Used in chapter 5: Build a thin vertical slice, chapter 15: A timeout does not tell you whether a write happened
How to use it
- Focus your reading
- Read factor 5, then use the author-linked 12-Factor Agents talk as an alternative overview.
- Put it to work
- Specify the persisted events needed to resume a paused task and reconcile any uncertain external side effect.
- Before you start
- A design opinion, not a standard. A serialized conversation alone does not make external writes exactly-once.
GitHub chapter and project README checked. Reviewed 2026-10-31
Jia Wu · AI Engineer, 2026-07
A specific conference talk on connecting enterprise problems to measurable outcomes.
Leo Mehr · AI Engineer, 2026
A conference talk about enterprise blockers, engineering ownership, and scoping.
Dex Horthy · AI Engineer, 2025
Companion talk to the written guide; not a separate learning requirement.