The day · Page 39
What you actually do for six hours
For you only
The facilitator's job during the build is a loop, not a mystery.
Roam. Music on, snacks out, and you on your feet. Half the energy in the room is yours, and the room can feel it when you sit down for an hour. You are reading the tables as much as helping them: who is flowing, who is quiet, which pair has stopped talking to each other.
Check in with every team roughly once an hour, and open with "show me what you have", never "how is it going". Demos over status, even at 10:30 when the demo is one ugly screen. Then two questions: "what worries you right now?" and "what does the user do next?"
Ask about worries because most concerns at a build day are permission questions in disguise. Are we allowed to skip the login? Yes. Does it need real data? No. Is this idea too crazy? There is no such thing before 15:30. Answer them straight and watch the speed come back.
Ask what the user does next because it is the question that refocuses without instructing. When a team is stuck, do not give them the answer, even when you can see it. Ask what the user would do next, point them back at the brief on the wall, and walk away. The prototype has to stay theirs, because at 16:00 they are the ones pitching it.
Same rule for prompting. Mentoring the vibe coding is your job, and the way to do it is out loud, next to them, never through their keyboard. Say the prompt sentence you would try. Let them type it. The moment you take the keyboard, the prototype quietly becomes yours, and their pitch goes flat an hour later.
Keep three lines in your pocket. "What does the user see in the first five seconds?" "Show me the click that proves it." "Talk less, demo more." Six hours of facilitation fits in those three sentences plus snacks.
You are the enabler, not the architect.