# Build Your First App This Holiday Season

> POP-IT is a free way to turn a real problem into something you can actually build

**Published by:** [Hard Mode First](https://hardmodefirst.xyz/)
**Published on:** 2025-12-18
**URL:** https://hardmodefirst.xyz/build-your-first-app-this-holiday-season

## Content

Last year, between Christmas and New Year’s, I built my first real app, which turned photos from museums into kid-friendly audio stories. No roadmap. No permission. Just one problem I couldn’t stop thinking about and a little bit of quiet time. Since then, I’ve learned how to use AI to augment nearly every part of my personal and professional workflow. It’s reshaped how I work, and I’ve helped 1,000+ people learn how to do the same through hands-on trainings and workshops with Build First. Now it’s your turn. If you’ve been telling yourself “I should build something with AI” but (still) not doing it, I made something to help you start. You can try it out at buildfirst.app.Try out the POP-IT app builderHow it WorksPOP-IT is a design framework to help you build apps with AI by guiding you through the following workflow:Problem: What is the problem you are trying to solve?Output: What do you want to see from the AI when you’re done?Prompt: What instructions does the AI need to accomplish the task?Input: What context or documentation can you share with the AI?Test: How will you know it’s working?Whether you’re starting off by building your first custom chatbot with ChatGPT or Gemini, or off to the races with AI no-code tools like Replit, Lovable, or Claude Code, POP-IT offers a way to help you structure your problems into real prompts to get you started. So, if you’ve got a little space this holiday season, build something small. Start messy. See what happens. You never know where it might lead… Happy building!Build your own version of my museum app for kids with this starter promptThe POP-IT framework was developed in partnership with Decoded Futures in 2024.

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