Section 09

Pitfalls & scope creep

Name the trap out loud and you're already half out of it.

Common new vibe coder pitfalls

  • 01One-shotting the whole app
  • 02Letting Lovable drive the product
  • 03Building before understanding the business problem
  • 04Confusing a form with a product
  • 05Adding AI without a clear purpose
  • 06No V1 boundary
  • 07Polishing too early
  • 08Not testing the main demo path
  • 09Not knowing what changed
  • 10Weak demo story

The scope creep trap

V1 means the first useful version.

  • V1 does not mean perfect.
  • V1 does not mean complete.
  • V1 does not mean every good idea.

V1 decision test

Run every new idea through these five questions before you build it.

  • Is this required?
  • Does this support the demo path?
  • Can we explain the business value?
  • Can we build and test it in time?
  • Is this more important than fixing the core flow?

Feature parking lot

V1 must build

Required for the demo path. Build today.

V2 parking lot

Good ideas. Worth doing later. Not now.

Rejected / not needed

Decided against. Don't revisit.

Don't
The deadliest pitfall is silence. If you're stuck for 10 minutes, ask a MentorME mentor.