Vibe Coding Nearly Gave Me a Heart Attack (So I Built FeatureFlow)

29.01.26 03:31 PM - By Jason Keller

When I first heard the term "vibe coding," I thought someone was joking.  You're telling me people are building production software by... vibing with AI? Just typing whatever feels right and letting the AI figure it out? After nearly 30 years as an enterprise software—managing custom software development on .net, PHP, CMS Platforms like Drupal, DotNetNuke, SharePoint, Nintex, and everything in-between—this sounded like a disaster waiting to happen.


"Vibe coding" is the complete opposite of everything we do in enterprise software development.


No requirements. No architecture. No governance. No traceability. Just vibes. So naturally, I turned to YouTube to see what all the commotion was about.


Holy sh*t!


The Moment I Knew Everything Had Changed

December 2024. I discovered Lovable—an AI-assisted development platform that could generate entire applications from prompts.  I tried it. It was impressive. Buggy, but impressive. Still felt like a toy for side projects, not serious enterprise work.  I went back to my day job.  Then March 2025 happened.  I gave Lovable another shot. The platform had improved dramatically in just three months. What I saw on my screen didn't feel like a toy anymore. It felt like something that could fundamentally change how software gets built.  And if there's one thing I've learned in 30 years, it's that technology evolves. Fast. I could now build applications that actually worked. Time to roll up my sleeves and see how to break this new technology—what it could do, what could go wrong, and what we should be most concerned with.


The Paradigm Shift Nobody's Talking About

Here's what nobody wants to say out loud:


The traditional software development lifecycle just got thrown out the door.


In the past, we'd spend maybe 20% of our time upfront designing an application and then 80% of our resource allocation on development time. Maybe more.

But what happens when tools like Lovable, Claude Code, or Cursor let you build an MVP in 1-2 days? Maybe a week?


Do sprints make sense when the entire project is done before your first sprint planning meeting?


The paradigm has shifted. Nobody's talking about it. And honestly, they should be.  Because here's the terrifying part: when you can build that fast, all the shortcuts people are taking—the "vibe coding," the skipped requirements, the lack of governance—they compound into production disasters at 10x speed.

I've seen this movie before with every low-code/no-code platform. Microsoft Access in the early days. SharePoint. Nintex. They all promised "anyone can build software!" And they were right... any Tom, Dick, or Harietta could build the next unsupported ghost IT system...GREAT!  Impowering people who don't have the foggiest idea about creating solutions is a horrible idea.  Sure, they can make things that work and solve real problems, but at what cost to the organization.? All these solutions ungoverned, no enterprise rigor... all a ticking timebombs!  


AI-assisted development is 100x more powerful than those tools. Which means the disasters can be 100x worse.  Unless someone builds the guardrails.


Why I Treat AI Differently Than Most People

I've always treated AI as a companion, not a magic wand.  I write my own concepts and ideas, then collaborate with AI until we get to the desired output. I provide context. I iterate. I review critically.  As a result, my experiences have been very positive. Frustrating at times, but overall? Blown away at what's possible.

But I kept seeing people throw vague prompts at AI and then complain about "slop." I kept seeing developers skip requirements gathering because "AI will figure it out." I kept seeing teams build fast and then realize three months later they had no idea what they'd actually built.


The tools are incredible. The methodology is broken.  So I decided to build something that would fix that.


The Three Versions That Taught Me Everything

After building a couple fun apps to learn the tools, I wanted to see if I could leverage AI-assisted development to help me do my actual job as a Product Owner.

I wanted to focus on building, not on the clerical work I didn't love—requirements writing, documentation, governance artifacts. Important stuff, but not exactly exciting.


So I built the first prototype of what would eventually become FeatureFlow.

  • Version 1: I had no idea what I was doing. It worked, but it was a mess. I learned what not to do.
  • Version 2: Amazing. I'm still using parts of it to build Version 3. But it was missing the most critical piece—an auditable and compliant system to modernize the way we design and build software.
  • Version 3: FeatureFlow. The real product. Not a prototype. Not a learning exercise. A production-ready Product Studio that brings corporate governance to startup velocity with lessons learned from version 1 and 2.

And you might ask: "Well if AI is so good, why did you have to build three versions?"  Because Version 1 taught me what the tool could do. Version 2 taught me what product teams actually need. Version 3 is everything I learned, synthesized into something that solves the real problem designed for public release.


What FeatureFlow Actually Is (And Isn't)

FeatureFlow is NOT another AI coding tool. We don't generate code for you. There are already great tools for that—Lovable, Cursor, Claude Code, Replit, Bolt, Google IDX.  FeatureFlow IS a Product Studio OS (Operating System) where you manage your products from initial idea through deployment and continued maintenance. Think of it this way: Traditional PM tools (Jira, Linear, Asana) show you lists of work. They're great at tracking. Terrible at orchestrating AI-assisted development.  AI coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code) are amazing at generating code. But they have no idea about your business requirements, your user personas, your architecture decisions, or your governance standards.


FeatureFlow bridges both worlds.


We help you build the context that AI development tools need to generate production-ready code. We orchestrate the entire product development lifecycle. We ensure every decision is traceable back to the original business need.  And we do it following our interpretation of a modern SDLC process—adapting industry best practices for the speed of an F1 car instead of a tricycle.


How It Actually Works

FeatureFlow is built around two core workflows, because not every product starts the same way:


New Venture Workflow

Got an idea for a new app? Product customer requests? That's where New Venture shines.  FeatureFlow collaborates with you to flush out your idea, create a product charter, identify features, define user personas, and spot strategic risks. AI handles the monotonous work. You focus on validation and direction.

Once ideated, you move to Validation—does your idea have legs? Who are your competitors? Is this a screaming success in the making, or a dud?  Then Discovery—talking to real users, real businesses that might use your product. Our Business Analyst Agent helps identify additional features based on user feedback, creating complete traceability. You can trace every feature back to: "Hey, this feature must do X... Jimmy J, May 1, 2025 at 5:30PM in a Teams Meeting."


Business Solution Workflow

Need to solve a specific business problem? Fast? That's Business Solutions.  Skip the ideation. Jump straight to Discovery. Define the problem, design the solution, and complete it as fast as possible with the most aggressive ROI.  Both workflows then flow through:


Design → Product Designer Agent works with you to fully document each feature with acceptance criteria, test cases, user stories, personas, wireframes. Everything.

Scope MVPs → Pick features, discuss dependencies and risks, define your release strategy.

Architecture → Architecture Agent helps define your technical approach. Scalable. Maintainable. Secure. When complete, a build sequence is created and it's time for the fun part.

Build Mode → FeatureFlow generates optimized prompts and build instructions for whatever AI-IDE you're using. Or even if you're not using AI—you can still use this process and output tasks for traditional DevOps.


Every step documented. Every step validated. Complete traceability from idea through deployment.


Who This Is For

We designed FeatureFlow for three types of Product Builders:

Agencies: Manage a portfolio of customers and their products. Stop context-switching between 12 client projects. FeatureFlow tracks everything.

Development Teams: Whether you're building one product or managing a complete internal portfolio, FeatureFlow ensures consistency, governance, and compliance across everything.

Solopreneurs: You don't have a team. You ARE the team. FeatureFlow helps you orchestrate product development like you have an entire studio behind you.


FeatureFlow doesn't build products for you. It works with experienced teams to execute up to 10X faster than traditional software development.


What to Expect in the First Public Release

We're launching the private beta in February/March 2026, with public release in June 2026.

Here's what you'll get:

Core Product Studio:

  • Complete customer and product management
  • New Venture and Business Solution workflows
  • Feature backlog with full lifecycle tracking
  • MVP planning with dependency management

AI Agent Orchestration:

  • Product Designer Agent for collaborative feature design
  • Architecture Agent for technical planning
  • Research Agent for market validation
  • Business Analyst Agent for discovery synthesis

Complete Documentation:

  • Feature requirements with acceptance criteria
  • User stories tied to personas
  • Test cases for QA teams
  • Architecture diagrams and system design
  • Build sequences for AI-IDEs

Enterprise Governance:

  • Complete audit trail of every decision
  • Requirements traceability from discovery through deployment
  • Role-based access control
  • Multi-tenant architecture with data isolation
  • Bring Your Own Key for LLM providers (your data, your control)

Works With Your Tools:

  • Lovable, Cursor, Claude Code, Replit, Bolt, Google IDX
  • Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Groq, Perplexity
  • Whatever tech stack you prefer—we're not prescriptive
  • Lovable, Cursor, Claude Code, Replit, Bolt, Google IDX
  • Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Groq, Perplexity
  • Whatever tech stack you prefer—we're not prescriptive
  • Lovable, Cursor, Claude Code, Replit, Bolt, Google IDX
  • Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Groq, Perplexity
  • Whatever tech stack you prefer—we're not prescriptive
  • Lovable, Cursor, Claude Code, Replit, Bolt, Google IDX
  • Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Groq, Perplexity
  • Whatever tech stack you prefer—we're not prescriptive


Built to Do One Thing Very Well

FeatureFlow is built to do one thing and one thing very well:


Help you bring products to market as quickly and cost-effectively as possible while still meeting the rigors of enterprise software development processes—fully auditable and compliant.


Startup velocity. Corporate governance. Finally in the same product.


The World Changed. Most People Haven't Realized It Yet.

AI-assisted development is real. The productivity gains are real. The speed is real.  But without proper methodology, governance, and context—it's just faster ways to build unmaintainable disasters.  FeatureFlow is how you get the speed without the chaos. The innovation without the compliance nightmares. The startup velocity without abandoning enterprise standards.


We spent a year researching AI-assisted development so you don't have to. We built the guardrails so your team can move fast without breaking things. We created the operating system for modern product development.


Private beta launches February/March 2026. Public release June 2026.


Want in? We're accepting beta applications now.

Apply for Private Beta

Because the paradigm shifted. And the teams that figure it out first will have an enormous competitive advantage.

Don't get left driving the tricycle while your competitors have F1 cars.


Jason Keller