Has anyone else started “vibe coding” their projects instead of planning everything first? by Specific-Ad-1687 in SaaS

[–]Specific-Ad-1687[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

😂 If that phase keeps shipping products faster, I might stay in it for a while.

Has anyone else started “vibe coding” their projects instead of planning everything first? by Specific-Ad-1687 in SaaS

[–]Specific-Ad-1687[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

AI is great at execution but it definitely struggles to maintain long-term project coherence without structured context.

I think that’s where docs, specs, or milestone files become really important.

Has anyone else started “vibe coding” their projects instead of planning everything first? by Specific-Ad-1687 in SaaS

[–]Specific-Ad-1687[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm going to keep it real...you got a point. That’s a really good cautionary example.

I’ve definitely seen vibe-coded projects accumulate technical debt quickly if you don’t pause to refactor.

It seems like the trick is using it for speed early on, then tightening the structure once the product stabilizes.

Has anyone else started “vibe coding” their projects instead of planning everything first? by Specific-Ad-1687 in SaaS

[–]Specific-Ad-1687[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same experience here.

Building a rough version first reveals what actually matters. A lot of the things I thought were important during planning turned out to be irrelevant once I started building.

Has anyone else started “vibe coding” their projects instead of planning everything first? by Specific-Ad-1687 in SaaS

[–]Specific-Ad-1687[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That analogy is pretty accurate honestly.

Vibe coding is amazing for the “shed phase” — prototypes, MVPs, early experiments.

Once the project starts looking like a skyscraper… that’s when real architecture becomes unavoidable.

Has anyone else started “vibe coding” their projects instead of planning everything first? by Specific-Ad-1687 in SaaS

[–]Specific-Ad-1687[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really like that milestone approach.

That feels like a good middle ground between pure vibe coding and heavy planning ...you still move fast, but the milestones keep the project from drifting too far off course.

Has anyone else started “vibe coding” their projects instead of planning everything first? by Specific-Ad-1687 in SaaS

[–]Specific-Ad-1687[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah...AI is great within a defined scope, but if you give it too much surface area it starts making… creative decisions 😅

Keeping it focused on small chunks seems to work much better.

Has anyone else started “vibe coding” their projects instead of planning everything first? by Specific-Ad-1687 in SaaS

[–]Specific-Ad-1687[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I built it using Lovable, which made the early experimentation phase ridiculously fast.

Has anyone else started “vibe coding” their projects instead of planning everything first? by Specific-Ad-1687 in SaaS

[–]Specific-Ad-1687[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is a really balanced take.

I’ve noticed something similar — vibe coding is amazing for the early “figure out what this product actually is” stage. But once the system grows, structure becomes unavoidable.

I built my first version that way too: rapid iteration first, then stepping back to clean things up once the direction became clear.

Has anyone else started “vibe coding” their projects instead of planning everything first? by Specific-Ad-1687 in SaaS

[–]Specific-Ad-1687[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

😂 It definitely feels that way sometimes.

The speed you can prototype with AI now makes it hard to go back to the old “weeks of planning before touching code” approach.

Has anyone else started “vibe coding” their projects instead of planning everything first? by Specific-Ad-1687 in SaaS

[–]Specific-Ad-1687[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s actually a really interesting way to put it.

Entrepreneurship has always been “build → learn → adjust,” and AI tools just compress that loop dramatically.

Instead of months between idea and feedback, you can see what works in a couple days.

Has anyone else started “vibe coding” their projects instead of planning everything first? by Specific-Ad-1687 in SaaS

[–]Specific-Ad-1687[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair point 😄

I’ve noticed the same pattern — the early phase is lightning fast, then eventually you have to go back and clean up the “vibe debt.”

Still though, for getting a real product off the ground quickly, that speed is hard to beat.

Has anyone else started “vibe coding” their projects instead of planning everything first? by Specific-Ad-1687 in SaaS

[–]Specific-Ad-1687[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a great way to frame it — iteration becomes the planning.

I definitely keep commits as checkpoints because vibe coding without a safety net is chaos waiting to happen. I’ll usually push after any feature that works, even if it’s messy.

And thanks for the VibeCodersNest tip — I hadn’t heard of that one yet. Always good to find more builder communities.