Zero to PMF in 12–20 weeks: the phase model.
Foundation → build to alpha → production-harden → PMF hunt — with eval and compliance gates at each phase.
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TL;DR
Brandlabs runs zero-to-one AI in four phases over 12–20 weeks: Foundation (evals + compliance spine), build to alpha, production-harden, then PMF hunt. Each phase has exit gates. Skipping gates does not save time — it moves failure later.
What happens in Foundation (weeks 1–3)?
Architecture from discovery, Precision-style eval targets across functional, qualitative, and safety dimensions, and CI that can run those evals. Compliance posture is designed here: HIPAA/DPDP sequencing, audit logging, consent UX — not left for week 16 paperwork.
If Foundation is weak, every later demo is theatre.
Exit gate: agreed thresholds, runnable harness, data-flow diagram, vendor list with BA/processor status, and a written risk register.
What does build-to-alpha (weeks 4–10) optimize for?
Weekly Friday evidence demos, failing evals blocking deploys, and an alpha with roughly ten trusted users. Compliance finalization continues in parallel — consent, audit, BAA — so alpha is not a shadow-IT science project.
This is where product shape emerges. We still refuse to “just ship the chatbot” without gates.
Exit gate: alpha users active, scorecard trending toward thresholds, critical safety fixtures green, known open risks owned.
What are production-harden and PMF hunt for?
Harden is latency, cost, observability, error budgets, and postmortem→regression culture. PMF hunt is real usage at scale with permission to rebuild components when data demands it — then handover or embedded extension.
Weeks 11–16: make the system operable by people who are not the original authors.
Weeks 17–20: chase retention and willingness-to-pay signals. Ego is not a phase gate. If a component is wrong, rewrite it.
Exit gate: production posture the client can run, evidence for next investment decision, clean handover packet or extension plan.
Frequently asked questions
Why not six weeks?
You can spike a demo in six weeks. Regulated, evaluated products that survive contact with users usually need the longer arc — or a deliberately smaller scope.
Can phases overlap?
Yes, lightly. What you cannot skip is the gate criteria. Overlap without gates is just a waterfall wearing a hoodie.