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The AI Project Starter Kit

Five worksheets to define a problem, plan a solution, test the result and document what you learn.

Worksheet 01

Problem definition worksheet

Describe the problem before choosing any model or tool.

  1. Who has this problem? Be specific about the user.

  2. What do they do today, and what is wrong with it?

  3. What would a good outcome look like for them?

  4. Constraints: data available, privacy, cost, speed, tools you must use.

  5. What must the solution never do?

  6. Is AI actually needed? What is the simplest non-AI alternative?

Worksheet 02

Success-metric checklist

Decide how you will judge the result before you build it.

  1. I have collected 10–30 realistic example inputs.
  2. I have written down what a good output looks like for each example.
  3. I have included awkward, ambiguous and invalid inputs.
  4. I have chosen 2–4 criteria (e.g. correct, follows format, cites source).
  5. Each criterion can be judged consistently by someone else.
  6. I have measured a simple baseline to compare against.

  7. Minimum acceptable result for launch:

Worksheet 03

Project planning template

Plan the smallest version that could work, then iterate.

  1. Inputs (format, source, size):

  2. Processing steps, in order:

  3. Outputs (format, who receives them):

  4. Models, tools and data you will use, and why:

  5. What happens when a step fails?

  6. Milestones (one per week is fine):

Worksheet 04

Testing and evaluation checklist

Run these before calling anything finished.

  1. Ran every example from the success-metric checklist.
  2. Recorded pass / fail per criterion, not just an overall impression.
  3. Tested empty, very long, malformed and off-topic inputs.
  4. Checked what happens when an external service or API fails.
  5. Re-ran tests after each significant change.
  6. Grouped failures into recurring patterns.

  7. Top three known failure patterns:

Worksheet 05

Results documentation template

Explain the work so someone else can understand and trust it.

  1. The problem, in two sentences:

  2. What you built and how it works:

  3. Key decisions and the alternatives you rejected:

  4. How you tested it and what the results were:

  5. Limitations — where it should not be relied on:

  6. What you would do next: