Eugene Yan
Applied AI engineer and creator of AlignEval
Explains product-specific evaluations through labeled data, calibrated model judges and repeatable experiments, with an app you can inspect.
Why read Eugene Yan?
Yan helps you turn a product requirement into a repeatable experiment. His three-step guide moves from labeled examples to an evaluator aligned with those labels, then a harness run after configuration changes. Separate criteria and a held-out test make it easier to see what improved and what regressed.
His AlignEval write-up supplies a concrete interface for that process: compare inputs and outputs, label failures, inspect the evaluator and test prompt changes. The small-data limitations are part of the explanation. Read the app’s design alongside the guide to understand the work behind a useful quality metric.
Selected work
-
Product Evals in Three Simple Steps
What should you measure before changing a model or prompt? Label real outputs, align a judge per criterion and run the experiment/evaluation harness. The discussion includes position bias and uncertainty from limited samples.
Cite this selection
XFollowList, “Product Evals in Three Simple Steps” reading notes in the Eugene Yan profile. https://xfollowlist.com/people/eugene-yan#work-e1d32e24e03e
The linked work is the original source; this permalink identifies XFollowList’s reason to read it. Original work published .
Profile-source checking date and references · Dated reading map
-
AlignEval: Building an App to Make Evals Easy, Fun, and Automated
What does evaluator calibration look like in an interface? Follow CSV import, pass/fail labeling, judge metrics and development/test splits. The post explains overfitting with small samples and links the app’s code.
Cite this selection
XFollowList, “AlignEval: Building an App to Make Evals Easy, Fun, and Automated” reading notes in the Eugene Yan profile. https://xfollowlist.com/people/eugene-yan#work-a84625be44bd
The linked work is the original source; this permalink identifies XFollowList’s reason to read it. Original work published .
Profile-source checking date and references · Dated reading map
Projects & roles
AlignEval
His open-source app for labeling outputs and developing product-specific LLM evaluators; linked from the author’s project walkthrough.
Sources & further reading
Profile sources checked . This describes checking these references, separately from the publication dates of selected works.
- His current biography links @eugeneyan and describes applied AI work and personal prototypes. His Anthropic Member of Technical Staff affiliation is a current first-person biography statement, not an independent employer check.Link to this source note
- The author’s dated walkthrough identifies AlignEval as his project and links its code. The citation uses the publication name Ziyou Yan.Link to this source note
- Current public X title identifies Eugene Yan and @eugeneyan, consistent with the author-site link.Link to this source note
Cite this profile’s source check
XFollowList, Eugene Yan profile sources. Sources checked 2026-10-11. https://xfollowlist.com/people/eugene-yan#sources-checked