Systematically Improving Rag Applications
Released 5/2025
With Jason Liu
MP4 | Video: h264, 1920x1080 | Audio: AAC, 44.1 KHz, 2 Ch
Genre: eLearning | Language: English | Duration: 39 Lessons ( 30h 13m ) | Size: 8.42 GB
Follow a repeatable process to continually evaluate and improve your RAG application
Stop building RAG systems that impress in demos but disappoint in production
Transform your retrieval from "good enough" to "mission-critical" in weeks, not months
Most RAG implementations get stuck in prototype purgatory. They work well for simple cases but fail on complex queries-leading to frustrated users, lost trust, and wasted engineering time. The difference between a prototype and a production-ready system isn't just better technology, it's a fundamentally different mindset.
The RAG Implementation Reality
What you're experiencing right now
❌ Your RAG demo impressed stakeholders, but real users encounter hallucinations when they need accuracy most
❌ Engineers spend countless hours tweaking prompts with minimal improvement
❌ Colleagues report finding information manually that your system failed to retrieve
❌ You keep making changes but have no way to measure if they're actually helping
❌ Every improvement feels like guesswork instead of systematic progress
❌ You're unsure which 10% of possible enhancements will deliver 90% of the value
What your RAG system could be
With the RAG Flywheel methodology, you'll build a system that
✅ Retrieves the right information even for complex, ambiguous queries
✅ Continuously improves with each user interaction
✅ Provides clear metrics to demonstrate ROI to stakeholders
✅ Allows your team to make data-driven decisions about improvements
✅ Adapts to different content types with specialized capabilities
✅ Creates value that compounds over time instead of degrading
What Makes This Course Different
Unlike courses that focus solely on technical implementation, this program gives you the systematic, data-driven approach used by companies to transform prototypes into production systems that deliver real business value
✅ The Improvement Flywheel: Build synthetic evaluation data that identifies exactly what's failing in your system-even before you have users
✅ Fine-tuning Framework: Create custom embedding models with minimal data (as few as 6,000 examples)
✅ Feedback Acceleration: Design interfaces that collect 5x more high-quality feedback without annoying users
✅ Segmentation System: Analyze user queries to identify which segments need specialized retrievers for 20-40% accuracy gains
✅ Multimodal Architecture: Implement specialized indices for different content types (documents, images, tables)
✅ Query Routing: Create a unified system that intelligently selects the right retriever for each query
The Complete RAG Implementation Framework
Week 1: Evaluation Systems
Build synthetic datasets that pinpoint RAG failures instead of relying on subjective assessments
BEFORE: "We need to make the AI better, but we don't know where to start."
AFTER: "We know exactly which query types are failing and by how much."
Week 2: Fine-tune Embeddings
Customize models for 20-40% accuracy gains with minimal examples
BEFORE: "Generic embeddings don't understand our domain terminology."
AFTER: "Our embedding models understand exactly what 'similar' means in our business context."
Week 3: Feedback Systems
Design interfaces that collect 5x more feedback without annoying users
BEFORE: "Users get frustrated waiting for responses and rarely tell us what's wrong."
AFTER: "Every interaction provides signals that strengthen our system."
Week 4: Query Segmentation
Identify high-impact improvements and prioritize engineering resources
BEFORE: "We don't know which features would deliver the most value."
AFTER: "We have a clear roadmap based on actual usage patterns and economic impact."
Week 5: Specialized Search
Build specialized indices for different content types that improve retrieval
BEFORE: "Our system struggles with anything beyond basic text documents."
AFTER: "We can retrieve information from tables, images, and complex documents with high precision."
Week 6: Query Routing
Implement intelligent routing that selects optimal retrievers automatically
BEFORE: "Different content requires different interfaces, creating a fragmented experience."
AFTER: "Users have a seamless experience while the system intelligently routes to specialized components."
Systematically Improving Rag Applications
