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Open PracticePRACTICAL AI ENGINEERING
EARN BY DOING · BUILD 01 · FIRST CUSTOMER

Make an offer someone can say yes to

Most first offers fail because they describe a skill, not a result for one kind of person. Here you write a niche brief, plan five short problem interviews, define exactly what you hand over, and set a price you can test by saying it out loud. The workshop takes about 20 minutes; the interviews take a week.

⏱ About 20–30 minutes to draft · the real-world steps take days · Works with or without AI · No signup

You will make

  • Niche brief
  • Offer sheet
  • Price hypothesis

You will practise

  • Choosing one buyer and one painful, repeated job
  • Writing a bounded offer with exclusions, timeline and revisions
  • Setting a price hypothesis and a rule for changing it

Download the practice pack (.zip)See a finished exampleOffer contract (.md)

No AI key needed. The guided template works for everyone.

  1. 1Brief

    Specific answers make better results — with or without AI.

    One kind of person you can reach this week.

  2. 2Make

    Pick a route. The template gives you a structure with [[blanks]] to fill in yourself. Your own key drafts it for you — then you still check it.

    See the exact prompt — copy it into any AI chat you already use
  3. 3Check
    The same rules run on every draft, human or AI. Most first drafts fail something — that is the point.
      Self-check — judgement no checker can make
    • 4Improve
      Fix one item at a time, then check again. Notice which fixes made it better — that is the skill.
      1. Run the check first.
    • 5Ship
      Use it for real: send it, post it or save it. Record what happened — that is your evidence of learning.
    A finished example
    The business, people and numbers are invented. It passes every check above, so you can see what “done” looks like before you start.
    Show the worked example
    > Worked example. The business, people and numbers are invented to show the shape of a finished deliverable.

# Offer sheet: a quick-reply set and booking script for hair salon owners in Avondale

## Niche brief
- Buyer: hair salon owners in Avondale with two to six chairs
- The job they hate: WhatsApp booking enquiries go unanswered on busy Saturdays
- Where I can reach five of them this week: the salons on the two shopping rows I pass every day
- Why me: I keep tidy spreadsheets and write clear WhatsApp messages for my church group

## Problem interview
1. Tell me about the last Saturday when enquiries piled up. What did you do?
2. How many of those people booked somewhere else, as far as you know?
3. What have you tried already: a helper on the phone, a booking app, anything else?
4. Who answers the business phone, and who would pay to fix this?
5. If this were solved, what would be different next month?

Notes after the interviews: four of five owners said Saturday mornings are the worst. Two said “by the time I answer, they have gone to the next salon”. One already uses quick replies and did not see a problem.

## The offer
- What you get: a set of 12 WhatsApp Business quick replies, a booking script for the person on the phone, and a one-page price list image
- Exclusions: no booking software, no paid adverts, no managing the phone for you
- Timeline: 3 days from yes to delivery
- Revisions: 2 rounds
- What I need from you: 30 minutes to list your services and prices, and your current greeting message

## Price hypothesis
- First price: US$40 one-off setup
- Why this number: about four hours of work at US$10 an hour, and less than the value of two lost bookings
- How I will test it: say the price to the five owners I interviewed and count who asks how to start
- I will change the price if: four or more say yes at once, then the next offer is US$55

## Boundary
- No guaranteed results, no invented testimonials and no fake deadlines.
- I will not message the salon's customers myself or see their contact list.

## Evidence so far
Two owners told me on 3 November that they lose Saturday bookings.
I counted unanswered enquiries with one owner's permission: 9 waited more than an hour last Saturday.

    Pro moves
    Methods this build practises
    Each method in the directory has a starter kit: the offer prefilled, first-sale steps, proof checks and the offer contract.
    METHOD 09Proposal and quotation kitBuyer: contractors and freelancersMETHOD 18Competitor/public-presence auditBuyer: local businessesMETHOD 33Paid niche research briefBuyer: operators in a narrow fieldMETHOD 39One-problem micro-toolBuyer: a niche calculator, formatter, checker, estimator or generator solving one repeated task.
    Questions people ask
    Why interview before building anything?
    Because the cheapest way to fail is on paper. Five 15-minute conversations tell you whether the problem is painful, who pays, and what words buyers use — all before you spend a week building.
    What if nobody likes my price?
    That is data, not failure. Write down what they said, check whether the problem or the price was the issue, and change one thing at a time.
    Will this make me money?
    Nobody can promise that, and Open Practice never does. This workshop helps you make work that is worth paying for and keep the evidence. Whether anyone buys depends on your market, your outreach and your work.
    Do I need an AI key to use this?
    No. The guided template teaches the same skill with no AI at all. If you add your own free key (Groq, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, Mistral or Cerebras), the tool can also draft and revise. The key stays in your browser and requests go straight to that provider.
    Where is my work saved?
    In this browser only (local storage), until you copy or download it. Nothing you type is sent to Open Practice.
    Keep building
    NEXT BUILDBuild 02 · Build a local business pageYou’ll make: Tested demo, Launch checklist, Client handoffACADEMY COURSEEarn by Doing: useful work, honest offersThe full build path: guided activities, a hosted lab and a combined capstone.