The Lab

What we're building, what broke, and what it cost. Real projects, written up as they happen - including the ones that didn't go to plan. Posted fortnightly.

Posts

Build in public

I built an app that tells dad jokes. It's the most serious thing I've made.

Landing a dad joke reliably is a brutal voice test. Pulling it off is the exact voice infrastructure I build in the first stage of an AI Blueprint.

Darren WellsRead →

Build in public

I lost 40 chillies to a bad build. So I started again, properly.

A bad build wiped 40 of my chillies. Rebuilding the Chilli Index with Claude taught me why the plan, not the prompt, is the real work - and what that means for an AI Product Sprint.

Darren WellsRead →