Vibe Coding Is Coming — And I Might Have Just Tried It

There’s a new term I’ve been hearing more and more lately: Vibe Coding.

It’s not an official methodology or some new framework (yet), but rather a feeling—a zone developers enter where everything just clicks. You’re moving fast, building with intuition, and the tools aren’t fighting you—they’re helping. It’s creative momentum at full speed, and I think I may have just experienced it for the first time.

Last week, I decided to test how quickly I could build and launch a new app idea that’s been bouncing around in my head. I called it MarketActivitiesPlanner—a simple tool to streamline planning and coordination for marketing campaigns. I started with nothing. No repo, no wireframes, not even a blank Next.js project.

By the end of the day, I had an MVP deployed and live.

MarketActivitiesPlanner – Technical Overview

The idea behind MarketActivitiesPlanner was to combine the best aspects of tools like Monday.com, ClickUp, and Excel, but tailor it specifically for marketing teams. The goal was to help them manage, schedule, and collaborate on their activities more intuitively.

Tech Stack

• Frontend: Next.js (React)
• Hosting: Vercel
• Backend: Vercel Serverless Functions
• Database: PostgreSQL, Supabase, or Firebase
• AI Features: Vercel AI SDK
• Calendar Sync: iCalendar (.ics), with integrations to Google, Outlook, and Apple Calendars

Core Features

1. Unified Marketing Activities
2. Unified Marketing Calendar
3. Subscription Integration
4. Proposals, Approvals, Commitments
5. Account Summary Dashboard

Collaboration & Access Control

• Roles: Admin, Editor, Viewer
• Real-time multi-user collaboration

AI-Enhanced Features (Stretch Goals)

• Smart posting suggestions
• AI reminders
• Predictive conversion modeling
• Campaign health alerting

UI/UX

• Clean, modern, responsive design
• Calendar, Gantt, Kanban, and List views
• Inline editing and task modals
• Optimized for mobile and desktop

Security & Authentication

• Role-based access with secure login
• Company-specific data isolation
• Auth via Vercel Auth, Auth0, or Firebase Auth

Deliverables

1. Live app on Vercel (production & preview)
2. Full marketing site with messaging
3. GitHub repo with source code
4. How-to documentation
5. Demo account with sample data
6. Admin portal for company settings

From Spec to MVP: How It Actually Happened

With this spec in hand, I used Vercel to spin up a live environment almost instantly. I pulled in the necessary components from Next.js and started sketching out the architecture. Supabase gave me instant backend structure, auth, and a relational database, while the Vercel AI SDK added just enough intelligence to make features like predictive suggestions viable from day one.

Drag-and-drop planning, Gantt view toggles, approval workflows, .ics calendar feeds—they all came together way faster than I expected. This wasn’t just a demo. It was a usable product.

But Here’s the Catch…

This only worked because I’ve lived with the problem this app is trying to solve. I’ve spent years hacking together marketing planning systems with spreadsheets, shared docs, and tools never meant for the job. That pain gave me clarity. I knew exactly what I wanted to build—and what I didn’t.

That experience let me ask the right questions, prioritize the right features, and skip the rabbit holes. If I were fresh out of college, I’m not sure I’d have gotten this far, this fast. Not because the tools aren’t accessible—they are. But because Vibe Coding relies on context.

It’s not just about writing clean code or using the latest stack. It’s about combining your domain knowledge with a development environment that finally keeps up with your brain.

So What Is Vibe Coding, Really?

To me, Vibe Coding is what happens when:

• You have a deep understanding of the problem you’re solving
• You’re using tools that are frictionless and modern
• You’ve hit a rhythm where building feels more like creating than coding

It’s fast. It’s fun. And it’s not just about speed—it’s about alignment between your thinking, your tools, and your execution.

This is closely related to what McKinsey describes as developer velocity, the notion that maximizing tools, culture, and practices can lead to 4–5x faster delivery and better business outcomes (McKinsey & Company, 2020).

Frameworks like Next.js and platforms like Vercel are the infrastructure making this possible. Their focus on performance, developer experience, and AI integration is helping coders skip boilerplate and focus on product value (Vercel Blog).

What’s Next?

I’m convinced this isn’t a one-off experience. Tools like Vercel, Supabase, and modern frameworks are evolving rapidly to meet builders where they are—especially when those builders deeply understand the problem they’re solving.

Vibe Coding may not be for everyone—yet. But for domain experts with a vision, it’s a glimpse of what the future of software development could feel like: empowering, expressive, and friction-free.

As I reflect on where this all leads, I believe the future lies in very specific applications—like what I built: project management software built for marketers, not just software that can be used by marketers. Too many platforms today—Jira, Monday, ClickUp—come loaded with tech debt, complex configurations, and bloated feature sets. They’re built to serve everyone, which often means they don’t serve anyone particularly well. On the flip side, tools like Excel and Google Sheets are too basic for collaborative, structured workflows. There’s a huge opportunity for lightweight, purpose-built tools—apps that solve a precise problem very well, rather than offering everything under the sun but delivering little that actually gets used. When you strip it down to what people really need to get work done, simplicity wins.

References

1. Next.js – The React Framework
2. Vercel AI SDK Announcement
3. McKinsey & Company – Developer Velocity Index (2020)
4. Supabase – Open Source Firebase Alternative
5. Vercel Blog – Product & Feature Updates

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash