The software engineering landscape is changing, and it's changing fast. Being a good software engineer is no longer about knowing ten programming languages, mastering every infrastructure tool, or memorizing best practices. Today, it's more and more about being a good prompt engineer, relying on LLMs to do the heavy lifting while you iterate your way to a working solution.
With this shift, someone with zero traditional programming experience can spin up a polished web application by vibe-coding their way through an LLM-powered workflow. Sure, engineers are still very much needed, mostly chasing the subtle and creative bugs LLMs introduce when they confidently generate code that almost works. But let’s be honest, that gap is closing. And it's only a matter of time before many of those bugs become a thing of the past.
What looks like a challenge is actually full of opportunity.
The Upside of “Everyone Can Build”
Not too long ago, kicking off a new initiative meant weeks of requirement gathering, whiteboarding, and heated discussions before a single line of code could responsibly be written. Prototypes were expensive, time-consuming, and often thrown away. Today, that barrier is gone.
With a few prompts and a clear idea, we can prototype end-to-end solutions in hours, sometimes minutes. Internally, we call this Hyper Velocity Engineering, or HVE.
HVE fundamentally reshapes how we interact with customers. Ideas turn into tangible demos almost instantly. Conversations become concrete instead of abstract. Feedback shifts from "what if we tried..." to "what about this?" Instead of speculating about solutions, we explore them together, in real-time.
Rethinking Architectural Design Sessions
Before starting a project, you usually kick off with an Architectural Design Session (ADS). Traditionally, these sessions result in a pile of Engineering Feasibility Spikes. Teams spin up experiments to validate assumptions, feed results into Architectural Decision Records (ADRs), and slowly narrow down the best approach over weeks or months.
HVE changes that flow dramatically.
With just basic requirements, you can prototype multiple approaches and show up to the ADS with working demos. No more debating hypotheticals. You see the trade-offs in action. Performance, developer experience, integration challenges: it all becomes real in ways that whiteboards never could.
HVE doesn't replace architecture work. It makes it better.
Don’t Show the Prototypes Too Early
Just because we can show working prototypes doesn't mean we always should.
A core value of any good ADS is fresh, unbiased ideas. Showing a polished prototype too early can anchor opinions and kill ideation before it even starts. People see something working and stop imagining alternatives. Timing matters.
Think of prototypes as conversation accelerators, validation tools, and tie-breakers. Not as opening statements. Let ideas breathe first. Give the room space to explore. Then use demos to ground discussions and sharpen decisions when the moment is right.
The Prototype-to-Production Trap
Prompt iteration is fast, sometimes dangerously fast.
In the era of vibe coding, pull requests can grow massive before anyone notices. Context gets lost. Code gets accepted because "it works", even though no one fully understands why it works. Technical debt quietly piles up, waiting to bite you later.
Before anything generated by an LLM goes to production, it deserves a hard second look. Break down those large PRs into smaller, reviewable PRs. Apply the same engineering fundamentals you always have. If anything, the bar should be higher, given how easy it is to generate complexity without fully thinking it through.
Here's where HVE reveals another advantage: the same technology that generated the code can help you review it. Purpose-built review agents and well-designed prompts can accelerate code comprehension, helping you map generated implementations back to original specifications. You can prompt an LLM to explain complex logic, identify potential edge cases, or highlight deviations from architectural patterns.
That’s also why spec-driven development is gaining popularity. With clear, written specs as your ground truth, code reviews become simple and objective: does this implementation actually do what it’s supposed to? Agents can even help automate checks for behavior, performance, and error handling, quickly flagging where the code drifts from the original intent.
LLMs can accelerate development significantly, but they don’t replace judgment, ownership, or responsibility. At least, not yet.
So, How Do We HVE Prototype?
Modern IDEs like VS Code with GitHub Copilot agents, or tools like Cursor, can help you rapidly prototype applications. But a lesser known HVE tool is GitHub Spark. It allows you to create fully functioning applications without even opening a code editor. Live reload as you prompt, with the ability to publish and share directly on GitHub.
The tools matter, but the mindset matters more. HVE is about leveraging speed without compromising quality. It's about using AI to elevate technical discussions instead of replacing critical thinking.
The Engineer Is Not Dead, Just Evolving
Software engineering isn't disappearing, it's transforming.
We're moving from writing code to designing systems. From implementing requirements to exploring possibilities. From typing syntax to guiding outcomes.
In the age of Hyper Velocity Engineering, our value lies not in how fast we can type, but in how well we can reason, question, and decide. The best engineers won't be the ones who write the most code. They'll be the ones who ask the right questions and know when a solution is good enough to ship.
And honestly? That's a future worth being excited about.