Spot a promising AI tool in your feed? Simon Willison recently highlighted work by Akshat Bubna (source). Here’s a no-hype, 10-minute checklist to decide if it’s worth your time.
Why this matters
Great demos can hide brittle edges. A quick, repeatable evaluation helps you separate signal from sizzle before you invest hours integrating or paying.
The 10‑minute evaluation
- Problem fit: In one sentence, what pain does it actually remove for you or your team?
- Live demo: Is there a minimal, runnable demo or playground? Five clicks max to try.
- Setup friction: Can you install or call an API in <10 minutes? Any hidden system deps?
- Data-in, data-out: What formats does it accept/return? Is there a clean way to export results?
- Quality check: Test with two real samples from your workload, not their canned prompts.
- Security & privacy: Where does data go? Any on-device option, redaction, or configurable retention?
- Cost clarity: Free tier? Usage units? Estimate $ per 1,000 real tasks you’d run.
- Benchmarks: Do they link to reputable comparisons (e.g., Papers with Code) and explain trade-offs?
- Maintenance: Recent commits, release notes, and issue response time. Is there a roadmap?
- Interoperability: SDKs, REST, or CLI? Does it play nicely with your stack and licensing model?
Quick signals to trust or skip
Green flags
- Working demo with reproducible instructions and sample data.
- Transparent limits and clear pricing with real-world examples.
- Changelog in the last 30 days and responsive maintainers.
Red flags
- Only polished videos, no hands-on demo or code.
- Benchmark claims without links or methodology.
- Ambiguous data handling or missing security posture.
Save this mini‑template
- Use case: __________________________
- Try time (min): ______ Result quality (1–5): ______
- Data path (where does it go/live?): __________________________
- Estimated monthly cost for my workload: $_______
- Deal-breakers found: __________________________
- Next step (adopt, trial longer, or pass): __________________________
Bottom line
Don’t chase every shiny demo. Use this 10‑minute pass to validate fit, quality, safety, and cost. If it clears the bar, then invest in deeper testing.
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