MOP BOOKSStartupMethodsThe Venture Builder'sPlaybook for the AI EraFaris Zacina

Startup Methods

The Founder/Developer Playbook for Proper Engineering in the AI Era

by Faris Zacina
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6 parts
·31 chapters·46,700 words

Old Principles, New Speed. A practical guide to building startups using time-tested methods, accelerated by AI.

1 / 31
Getting Started
About Us

Why Ministry of Programming wrote this book—and why it matters.

1,200 words

2 / 31
Getting Started
Introduction

Why most startup methodology fails—and how to fix it.

800 words

3 / 31
Getting Started
Modern Product Building

AI changes the speed. The fundamentals stay the same.

1,600 words

4 / 31
Lean Strategy
Jobs to Be Done

Understanding what customers actually hire your product to do.

2,000 words

5 / 31
Lean Strategy
Lean Canvas

Your entire business model on one page.

1,800 words

6 / 31
Lean Strategy
Mission, Vision & Values

The decision-making tools that end arguments.

1,800 words

7 / 31
Lean Strategy
Goals & OKRs

Turning intentions into measurable commitments.

1,800 words

8 / 31
Product Leadership
Feature Roadmap

Outlining your product

1,600 words

9 / 31
Product Leadership
Product Requirements Document

Defining requirements that engineers actually want to read.

1,800 words

10 / 31
Product Leadership
Story Mapping

Visualizing the user journey to plan releases.

1,500 words

11 / 31
Product Discovery
Behavioral Analytics

Understanding what users actually do, not what they say.

1,400 words

12 / 31
Product Discovery
Competitive Research

Learning from the market without copying it.

1,400 words

13 / 31
Product Discovery
Design Systems

Building consistent UI faster with reusable components.

1,300 words

14 / 31
Product Discovery
Discovery Sprints

Fixed-time sprints to explore and validate ideas.

1,400 words

15 / 31
Product Discovery
High-Fidelity Prototyping

Testing ideas before writing code.

1,300 words

16 / 31
Product Discovery
Minimum Viable Product

Build just enough to learn, not everything you imagined.

1,500 words

17 / 31
Product Discovery
Usability Testing

Finding UX problems before your users do.

1,300 words

18 / 31
Product Discovery
User Interviews

Understanding users through conversation, not surveys.

1,600 words

19 / 31
Product Discovery
User Journey Mapping

Visualizing the complete user experience.

1,300 words

20 / 31
Product Engineering
Architectural Documentation

Documentation that people actually read and update.

1,300 words

21 / 31
Product Engineering
CI/CD Pipelines

Automated testing and deployment that just works.

1,400 words

22 / 31
Product Engineering
DORA Metrics

Measuring engineering performance that matters.

1,300 words

23 / 31
Product Engineering
Infrastructure as Code

Reproducible infrastructure with Docker and modern tooling.

1,400 words

24 / 31
Product Engineering
Low-Code & No-Code

Building faster by writing less code.

1,400 words

25 / 31
Product Engineering
Modular Monolith Architecture

The architecture that scales without the microservices headache.

1,500 words

26 / 31
Product Engineering
Quick Deployment Tools

Shipping MVPs to production in minutes, not weeks.

1,200 words

27 / 31
Product Engineering
Rapid Development Techniques

Shipping features faster without sacrificing quality.

1,300 words

28 / 31
Playbooks
AI Prototyping Sprint

Go from idea to clickable prototype in 4 hours using AI tools.

1,400 words

29 / 31
Playbooks
Continuous Delivery Sprint

Establish a sustainable shipping rhythm that balances speed with quality.

1,400 words

30 / 31
Playbooks
Design & Discovery Sprint

A structured 1-2 week sprint to go from unclear problem to validated solution direction with user feedback.

3,200 words

31 / 31
Playbooks
MVP Building Sprint

Ship a functional MVP in 2 weeks by combining validated learnings with rapid development.

1,500 words