The masterclass at a glance

Building a consumer app happens on a grid: 15 continuous threads (security, privacy, payments, analytics…) that each run through 18 phases of the build — from “is this worth building” to “operate and grow it.” The masterclass covers that grid as 389 decision topics, each with a recommended default, the reasoning, and what flips it — researched, verified, dated, and built to use with your coding agent.

The 15 threads (run through every phase)

The 18 phases (and the forks)

The rest of the grid: the build sequence from validation to scale, plus the two upstream forks that reshape everything — one product with two clients vs. two products, and the monetization model.

• Foundations / meta (META) — 6 topics
• Monetization (spans threads — branch point for $model topics) — 1 topic
• Phase 0 — Idea & problem validation (VAL) — 11 topics
• Phase 1 — Strategy, scope & business model (STR) — 7 topics
• Phase 2 — Legal, business & compliance foundation (LEG) — 7 topics
• Phase 3 — UX (experience) design (UX) — 11 topics
• Phase 4 — UI (visual) & brand design (UI) — 10 topics
• Phase 5 — Technical architecture (ARC) — 25 topics
• Phase 6 — Environment & foundations setup (ENV) — 13 topics
• Phase 7 — Backend & infrastructure (BE) — 22 topics
• Phase 8 — Mobile app build (MOB) — 23 topics
• Phase 9 — Desktop app build (DSK) — 16 topics
• Phase 10 — Cross-platform integration (XP) — 6 topics
• Phase 11 — Quality assurance & testing (TST) — 11 topics
• Phase 12 — Store & distribution prep (SHIP) — 14 topics
• Phase 13 — Go-to-market & marketing (GTM) — 17 topics
• Phase 14 — Launch (LAU) — 5 topics
• Phase 15 — Post-launch operations (OPS) — 11 topics
• Phase 16 — Growth, retention & iteration (ITER) — 10 topics
• Phase 17 — Scaling & maturity (SCA) — 14 topics

Browse every topic — all 389 titles, dated →

Eighteen verdicts, free

Every one of the 389 topics carries a one-line verdict like these. The 18 below are open; the other 371 — and the full worked topics behind all of them — are the masterclass.

• META-001 The grid as a working model: Sketch the grid as a lookup table, not a checklist.
• META-002 [A] vs. [B]: one product or two: Build [A] — one backend, two clients — unless you can name a hard constraint that forces separation.
• ARC-006 Mobile stack: Start by answering one question: what is your desktop client? It decides the mobile stack more than any benchmark.
• SEC-003 Secrets management: Use the native secret store of whatever platform already hosts your backend, plus your CI provider's built-in secrets for the deploy pipeline.
• PAY-003 Payment-processor selection: There are two co-defaults, split by where the money is and how much ops you can carry.
• MON-001 Monetization model selection (decision tree): Start with a one-shot vs. recurring-need test, not a model.
• GRO-001 Unit economics (CAC, LTV, ratio, payback, margin): Build a small spreadsheet, measure cost-per-payer (never per-install), and gate on two numbers: CAC payback first, LTV:CAC second.
• SHIP-001 Store listing & ASO: Ship one clear, honest, well-crafted listing per store, earn retention and ratings first, and treat formal A/B testing as a later graduation step — not a launch-day activity.
• AI-002 Build-vs-buy: hosted API vs. open-weights vs. fine-tuned: For your first shipped product and the first 12–18 months: use a hosted API.
• UX-005 Onboarding & activation funnel: Get a new user to one real, value-proving action — their aha-moment — inside the first session, ideally the first few minutes.
• QA-001 Test strategy & the pyramid: For a solo or small team building a consumer app with an AI agent, weight the middle.
• ENV-013 Developer-onboarding runbook: Make onboarding script-first, not prose-first.
• DSK-002 Window, menu & tray management: Use the framework's native window/menu/tray APIs, and use the maintained window-state plugin rather than writing your own serializer.
• VAL-001 Problem definition, job-to-be-done & solution hypothesis: Scale your discovery effort to your build cost and reversibility — not to a fixed number of weeks or interviews.
• A11Y-001 Conformance target (WCAG 2.2 AA, EAA exposure): Build both your mobile and desktop clients to WCAG 2.2 Level AA from the start, but assert formal conformance to WCAG 2.1 Level AA — the level your binding law actually names — and list 2.2 as your stated roadmap.
• BE-001 Database setup & migrations: Use your ORM's native migration layer — Drizzle Kit (TypeScript/Node, matching the Drizzle ORM default chosen in ARC-008) or Alembic (Python) — version every migration as a reviewed file in Git, and apply migrations in a CI/CD step that runs before your app code deploys.
• CMP-003 GDPR / CCPA-CPRA / COPPA / HIPAA scope: Build GDPR-grade data-subject plumbing on day one, honor opt-out/Global Privacy Control signals, treat health data as regulated even without HIPAA, and scope US state laws by resident-count rather than revenue.
• DOC-002 Architecture Decision Records: Keep a single living decision log — one Markdown file, DECISIONS.md, at your repo root — with one short, dated entry per significant decision, newest at the top.

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