It’s really a shoot first, make NIP later system, since NIPs are encouraged/required to be implemented somewhere in production before they are approved.
Discussion
Thanks friend, this is what I was looking for! Wasn't sure if it was a before or after you have a proof of concept kinda thing. Thanks for your help
Many people go ahead and open a proposed NIP as a pull request to get feedback before implementing. That's still a good idea I think. But the NIP readme says they won't be merged until they're being used for real.