What is the Paper-First Method?

The Paper-First Method is a seven-step way to build software with AI, created by Sohaib Waheed. You design the product on one page by hand, make an AI like Claude push back on it, decide the architecture and stack yourself, and then let an AI coding tool build inside that structure. Its three beats are Paper. Pushback. Production. You do the thinking, and the AI does the building.

Who created the Paper-First Method?

Sohaib Waheed, an AI Product Architect and the founder of Zaltech AI. It is the process he uses to build software with Claude, Cursor and Claude Code, and he has built 25–30+ applications this way. He published it at paperfirstmethod.com in October 2026. More on the about page.

What are the seven steps of the Paper-First Method?

1. Draw the page. 2. Read it out loud to Claude. 3. Turn the page into an architecture. 4. Pick the stack yourself. 5. Write the six-line brief. 6. Let it build and review like an architect. 7. Ship, then back to paper. Step 1 is Paper, steps 2 to 4 are Pushback, and steps 5 to 7 are Production.

What does "Paper. Pushback. Production." mean?

They are the three beats of the method. Paper: one hand-drawn page with the flow, the journey and the architecture. Pushback: read the page to an AI and make it disagree until the page is honest, then decide the architecture and the stack. Production: a six-line brief becomes build prompts, the AI builds inside your structure, and you review, ship and go back to paper. You own the first two beats.

Is the Paper-First Method free?

Yes. The method, the templates, the printable worksheet and the Claude Code starter kit are free to download from paperfirstmethod.com, with no email sign-up.

What licence are the templates under, and how do I credit them?

The templates are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). You can use, share and adapt them, including in your own work and courses, as long as you give credit. The credit line is: "The Paper-First Method by Sohaib Waheed", with a link to paperfirstmethod.com.

Which AI tools does the Paper-First Method use?

Sohaib uses Claude to think and Cursor to build, with Claude Code inside Cursor for the heavier work. The method doesn't depend on any of them. Use whichever chat assistant and coding tool you prefer, and keep the order of the steps.

Does it work with Claude Code, Cursor or GitHub Copilot?

Yes. The outputs of the method are plain text: a photo of the page, an architecture, a six-line brief and one build prompt per service. Any AI coding tool that follows written instructions can use them, including Claude Code, Cursor and GitHub Copilot. The free starter kit is set up for Claude Code, with a CLAUDE.md file, permissions and two hooks.

How long does the planning take?

The pushback session with Claude is 20 to 40 minutes. In the recorded JobFuture build, the page took about fifteen minutes with a pen, and all the planning with Claude took about 45 minutes before any code. Bigger products take longer, but the planning is always finished before the first build prompt.

How long does it take to build an app with the Paper-First Method?

It depends on the product. The recorded example, jobfutureai.com, was built on 12 October 2026: about 45 minutes of planning, the first Cursor prompt at about 6:37 pm, the first commit at 7:02 pm, 41 commits, and the site live at about 11:25 pm. That is under five hours of building. The build page has all six episodes.

Is the Paper-First Method an alternative to vibe coding?

Yes, for anything other people will use. Vibe coding steers by feel from prompt to prompt and suits prototypes and experiments. The Paper-First Method makes the decisions first, on paper, and has the AI build inside them. See Paper-First vs vibe coding.

How is it different from spec-driven development?

Both build from a written plan. Spec-driven development usually starts with a specification the AI drafts. The Paper-First Method starts earlier, with a hand-drawn page and a pushback session, and keeps the architecture and stack decisions with a person. The spec comes out of step 5. See Paper-First vs spec-driven development.

Do I need to be a developer to use it?

You need to be able to make the decisions and review the result: the flow, where a human approves, the architecture, the stack and the five review checks. The AI writes most of the code. The method doesn't remove the thinking. It moves it to the start. Sohaib came to it as a product manager who learned to build.

Has the method been used on real products?

Yes. Sohaib has built 25–30+ applications with it, and it is how his company, Zaltech AI, builds today. One full build was recorded on camera: jobfutureai.com, the AI Readiness App, built in one evening on 12 October 2026. The six episodes and the documents are on the build page.