Unit 5 · Lesson 2
Map the stack
Break your problem into steps and give each one a verb.
You've got your problem. Now here's the move that makes you a builder instead of a chatter:
You break the job into steps, and you give each step to the right worker.
Remember the five verbs from Unit 1 — classify, predict, generate, retrieve, act? A real AI product is almost never one verb. It's a chain of them. Mapping that chain is called mapping the stack.
A workflow is a recipe. Each step is a job, and only some of those jobs belong to the AI.
One idea: turn a problem into a chain of steps
Take a problem and write it as a numbered list of small steps. Then label who does each step — you, a plain tool, or an AI (and which verb).
Say the problem is "turn my messy homework question into a clear one for my tutor." The stack might be:
| Step | What happens | Who does it | Verb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I dump my confusing question | Me | — |
| 2 | Pull out what I'm actually asking | AI | Generate |
| 3 | Rewrite it clearly, with what I tried | AI | Generate |
| 4 | I read it and fix anything wrong | Me | Verify |
| 5 | Send to tutor | Me | Act |
Notice step 4. You are in the stack — as the checker. Every good workflow has a human verification step, because you finished Unit 4 and you know first answers need checking.
Do the thing
Map your project from last lesson. Write it as numbered steps, and label each one:
- Me (things a human should decide or check)
- Tool (a plain non-AI tool — a timer, a calculator, a list)
- AI + verb (which of the five verbs)
Keep it to five or six steps. If a step feels huge, split it. If two steps are basically the same, merge them.
Quick check. If every step is "AI," look again — you've probably hidden a decision or a check that should be yours. And if no step is AI, you might not need AI at all (which is a totally fine answer — a to-do list beats a chatbot for some jobs). The goal is the right tool per step, not the most AI.
Why this matters
Mapping the stack is the difference between "I asked a chatbot" and "I designed a process."
- Steps make the invisible visible. Once it's a numbered list, you can see exactly where it might break — and where you need to stay in charge.
- The best builders assign, not dump. They give each step to whoever does it best: human judgment, a dumb reliable tool, or an AI verb.
Next lesson, the payoff: you'll build the smallest possible version of your workflow, run it on real cases, and hunt for where it breaks — just like you did to the cat-detector.