Lesson 2.1 · 45 minOffer and audience

What you will have

The student has docs/brief.md in their repository: a one-page project brief that names one audience, one offer and one conversion action, with every fact Claude could not know either supplied by the student or marked as missing.

Video

The video for this lesson is not recorded yet.

Prompts used in this lesson

Part 3 — Demonstration: Claude as interviewer

Purpose: I need a one-page project brief for a lead-generation website. You and I
will build the whole site from this brief in later sessions, so it must contain
facts, not guesses.

Context: The business is Brightside Cleaning, a home-cleaning service in [City].
I am the owner. You know nothing else about it yet.

What to do: Interview me. Ask one question at a time and wait for my answer.
Cover: who the customer is, their problem, what we offer, what proof we have,
the single action the site should ask for, what happens after someone contacts
us, and what makes an enquiry a good or a poor one for us. Ask a follow-up when
an answer is vague. Stop after about ten questions.

Done looks like: a file docs/brief.md, no longer than one page, written after
the interview. Show me the outline before you write the file.

Constraints: Use only what I tell you. Do not invent prices, numbers, customer
quotes, guarantees or years in business. If I say "I don't know" or skip
something, record it under a heading "Open items — owner to supply".
Write in plain language.

Part 4 — Demonstration: Claude as critic

Purpose: I want to find the weak points in @docs/brief.md before we write the
site's copy from it.

Read it as a sceptical customer in [City] who has never heard of Brightside,
and then as a marketer reviewing it.

Done looks like: a list of at most seven problems, most serious first. For each:
quote the sentence, say why it is weak (vague, unprovable, two audiences mixed,
more than one action, missing fact), and ask me the question whose answer would
fix it.

Constraints: Do not rewrite the brief yet. Do not suggest facts; ask me for them.

Update docs/brief.md with my answers. Keep it to one page. Move anything I still
could not answer to "Open items — owner to supply". Then show me what changed.

Do along

Work on your own project. Pause the video where a step says so.

1. Before Part 3: start from lesson-1.6 and open Claude Code in your project folder. Decide: own business, client, or the sample. Write the choice at the top of your notes. If it is a client, book twenty minutes with them or collect their answers first.
2. Pause when the interview prompt appears in Part 3. Use it, changing the Context paragraph to your business: name, what it does, where, and your role. If your one main action is not a quote request (for example "book a call" or "order a sample"), say so when Claude asks; keep it to one.
3. Answer truthfully. For anything you do not know, say "I don't know yet". Do not round numbers up or guess.
4. Pause at the table of headings in Part 3. Read your docs/brief.md against it. Ask Claude to add any heading that is missing.
5. Pause after Part 4. Run the critic prompt. Answer at least three of its questions, then have Claude update the file with the update prompt.
6. Commit and push.

Check your work

1. Open docs/brief.md. It fits on about one page. → Yes.
2. Under Audience, count the groups of people. → Exactly one.
3. Under Offer, every term (what is included, response time, area) is something you said. → No term you do not recognise.
4. Under Conversion action, there is one sentence naming one action. → One.
5. Search the file for numbers. Each number is one you supplied. → None invented.
6. Open items exists and lists what you could not answer. → Present, even if short.
7. Run git status. → Nothing left to commit.

Common problems

• Claude asks all its questions at once. → The "one at a time" line was lost or the prompt was shortened. → Say: "Ask one question at a time and wait for my answer."
• The brief contains a fact you never gave (years in business, a customer count, "fully insured"). → Claude filled a gap. → Say: "List every statement in docs/brief.md that I did not tell you in this conversation, then remove each one or move it to Open items."
• Two audiences ("homeowners and offices"). → You answered broadly. → Choose the one that brings the most business now; tell Claude to put the other under a line "Not the audience for this site".
• Several actions (form, call, chat, newsletter). → Claude's suggestions were accepted. → Say: "Keep one conversion action: [yours]. Mention other contact methods only as secondary."
• The brief runs to three pages. → Too much detail was kept. → Say: "Cut docs/brief.md to one page. Keep every heading; shorten the text under each."
• The critic only praises. → The prompt was softened. → Use the Part 4 prompt as written, including "most serious first".

Homework

About 30 minutes, after the lesson. Nothing here is needed to start lesson 2.2.

1. Plan the open items (~10 min). Next to each line under "Open items — owner to supply" in docs/brief.md, write who will supply it and by what date; reviews first. Put the dates in your calendar. Commit without a tag. Done when: every open item has a name and a date.
2. Your customers' words (~10 min). Find three to five phrases real customers used about their problem: old messages, emails, things said on a call. Add them, word for word and without names, under Problem, labelled "Customer language — not for publication as quotes". With the sample business, write the phrases in your notes instead and leave the brief alone. Commit without a tag. Done when: at least three phrases are recorded that you did not write yourself.
3. A second brief, by hand (~10 min). Pick a local business you know as a customer. Without Claude, answer the five questions from Part 2 for it, one line each, in your notes. Done when: five lines, naming one audience and one action.

Save your work

git add -A
git commit -m "Lesson 2.1: project brief"
git push