rene_zelaya

mitm llc // the thesis

Shipped Solo

a master's thesis, run as a working studio

I just finished my master's in human computer interaction for artificial intelligence in Barcelona. My thesis focused on enabling individuals to leverage AI for productivity while avoiding the common pitfalls. The method that came out of it is Shipped Solo: run a one-person studio that releases real products, with AI as the junior employees and as much of the work automated as possible.

the system

Six phases, idea to shipped

One move, repeated at the six places work with AI tends to break. The tightest version: restrain the human from the trap of the overconfident AI. Each phase opens into a field report from the products that proved it.

01

Calibrate

Test the AI where you are qualified to grade it, so you learn its edges before trusting it where you can't.

▸ expand report
02

Research

Desk research as a sieve. Make the AI argue against the idea, and let most ideas die cheap.

▸ expand report
03

Spec

Groom the prompt like a Jira ticket: the data, the intent, and the verification, composed into one directive.

▸ expand report
04

Build MVP

Build only the core flow first. Get it right. Add features one at a time on top.

▸ expand report
05

Test

Real users, fast. Their feedback decides whether you harden it, add to it, or kill it.

▸ expand report
06

Interrogate

Question the output and the reasoning instead of accepting it. Make the AI defend the options it rejected.

▸ expand report

learn even more

It is a method, and I teach it.

23%

of organizations offer training for LLM competency. Everyone else is handing people powerful, overconfident tools with no method for using them well. That gap is the real risk, and closing it is the work.

Want to learn this methodology? I turn the six phases above into training and one-on-one coaching on the Shipped Solo Method, for individuals and teams alike, so you get a repeatable way to ship with AI instead of winging it.