Backward Builder

Assembled by the director on 2026-10-18 from the catalog record on freebeer.ai (products.backward-builder); a draft for Wayne's revision on the product details page. The factory builds to the current version.

Problem. Most AI tools for teachers generate stuff — worksheets, lesson plans, quiz questions — and quietly take the teacher out of the thinking. The planning is the teaching.

Who. Teachers and curriculum teams who want to do real backward design with an AI thinking partner, not a content generator.

Must.

• Backward design as the spine: name the outcome (what students should know, do and understand), design the evidence (what would prove they got there), then plan the learning — in that order, with the AI questioning every choice.
• The AI asks the questions a good instructional coach would, pressure-tests the alignment between goals and evidence, and stays out of the way when the teacher knows what they want. Amplification, not automation.
• Units that stack across a course or a department; the school's own standards and language; school data private by default.
• A teacher leaves with a unit they understand end to end, because they designed it.

Signal. Reserved early-access seats from the catalog page; a department pilot.

Output. The web app at backwardbuilder.com, listed on freebeer.ai with real screenshots; Teacher, Department and District tiers (prices not set).

Investment case

• Buyer. A teacher (one seat), a department (shared units, a lead's view), a district (a commissioned setup through the portal).
• Price. [PRICE] per tier — Wayne sets it.
• Path to market. The catalog, the newsletter, hughmann.life; the first studio product.