Class 1 — You just got hired

Block 1 · Theory · 2026-09-01

In class

You joined a small company that already has software. After a short tour of the course (what it is, how it's graded), we went straight to its core skill: designing a workflow. Most people who fail at building software don't fail at code — they fail at describing the process.

The exercise: four friends on a weekend trip, paying for things at different times and in different amounts — design the workflow that ends with everyone square. Trigger, steps, decisions, and the data each step needs.

The debrief: what you drew is the software. Your nouns become the data, your steps become the screens, your decisions become the rules. Next class — the first practical — we go through the two starter apps together and you'll see your workflow running: SplitIt (who owes whom) or Tiny CRM (leads to deals).

Homework — before the practical

1. Install Codex — the ChatGPT desktop app, free plan. The Setup guide covers uv (it installs Python for you) and the app. (Already set up Cursor or VS Code? Keep it; Codex is what we use in class.)
2. Get one of the apps on your computer. Pick with your group — SplitIt or Tiny CRM, both the same size — download the ZIP from Week 2 and unzip it into a nova folder in Documents.
3. Make sure you can interact with the codebase. Open the folder in Codex, run the app (uv run streamlit run app.py), click around for ten minutes as if you were a user, and try asking the AI a question about the code. Note two things that surprised you and one thing you would change — bring the notes to the practical.

The slides from class are in the materials below.