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Hands-on AI Playbook

Find Your Skill Candidates (Quick Prompt)

Why This Matters

Section titled “Why This Matters”

The best Claude Skills come from work you already do repeatedly — not ideas you brainstorm on the spot. This prompt puts Claude in the analyst seat: it reviews what it already knows about you from memory, interviews you about your recurring work, and returns a ranked table of skill candidates with the single best one to build first.

Use this when you want a fast, conversational discovery in one Claude chat — ideal for live sessions or when you want Claude to do the heavy lifting. Prefer a worksheet you can fill out on your own time? → Discover Your Best Claude Skills (Worksheet).

How to Use This Prompt

Section titled “How to Use This Prompt”
  1. Copy the prompt from the code block below using the copy button in the top-right of the block
  2. Open a new conversation in Claude (Pro or higher — memory access helps but isn’t required)
  3. Paste and send — Claude will start with Phase 1 (memory review)
  4. Answer one question at a time during Phase 2 — be specific about real work, not ideal work
  5. Review the ranked table in Phase 3 and pick the top candidate to build

The Prompt

Section titled “The Prompt”
You are an AI workflow analyst helping me identify the best candidates to package as Claude agent skills — reusable bundles of instructions, context, and reference material that Claude loads on demand to handle a repeatable task consistently.


What qualifies as a skill candidate — any ONE of these is enough:
- A **repeatable task** I do more than once, with a recognizable trigger ("every Monday", "whenever a new X arrives", "before every client call") and a stable output shape
- **Reused context or reference material** I paste into Claude over and over — brand guidelines, voice rules, product facts, glossaries, policy docs, SOPs, templates, style guides, example outputs, frameworks, rubrics
- **Standing instructions** I find myself re-typing into prompts ("always do X", "never do Y", "structure it like Z", "use this tone", "follow this checklist")
- Any combination of the above — most real skills bundle a repeatable task WITH the context and instructions it needs


What does NOT qualify (exclude these):
- One-off creative work with no repeat pattern
- Tasks requiring real-time access to systems Claude can't reach (unless an MCP or tool already exists)
- Pure judgment calls with no underlying rubric
- Things better solved by a macro, script, or a full agent rather than a skill


We'll work through this in three phases.


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Phase 1 — Memory Review


Before asking me anything, review everything you know about me from memory: role, tools, recurring workflows, tasks I've asked for help with repeatedly, documents I've had you draft, and patterns in how I work.


List the candidate tasks you've already observed. For each, include:
- The task in one line
- Why it stood out (frequency, consistent pattern, same tools/inputs, same output shape)
- What memory entries or prior sessions it came from


If you find nothing usable, say so and skip to Phase 2.


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Phase 2 — Discovery Interview


Ask me focused questions one at a time. After each answer, probe deeper before moving on. Cover these areas, adapting order to what I reveal:


1. Tasks I do weekly or more often
2. Work that pulls information from multiple apps, docs, or people
3. Work that produces a consistent output shape (report, email, summary, update, ticket, post)
4. Decisions I make by following a pattern or checklist rather than gut
5. Tasks I dread or delay because they're tedious, not hard
6. **Context I paste into Claude over and over** — brand/voice guides, product info, glossaries, customer data, framework definitions, style rules, reference docs, example outputs
7. **Standing instructions I repeat** — "always include X", "never do Y", "format like Z", "match this tone" — things I catch myself re-typing
8. Templates, rubrics, checklists, or "the way I do X" knowledge that lives in my head or in scattered docs


Continue until we have at least 6 distinct tasks (memory + interview combined). Then move to Phase 3.


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Phase 3 — Ranked Output


Produce a ranked table:


| Rank | Task | Trigger | Frequency | Time/Instance | Inputs | Output | Source | Potential | Why |


- Source: 🧠 Memory, 🗣️ Interview, or Both
- Potential:
  - 🟢 High — clear trigger, predictable inputs/output, procedural logic I could describe in a checklist
  - 🟡 Medium — mostly structured but needs occasional judgment or missing context
  - 🔴 Low — too creative, relational, or context-dependent to package as a skill today


Rank highest to lowest potential.


After the table, provide:
1. The single best candidate to build first and why it delivers the biggest leverage (frequency × time saved × consistency gain)
2. What the skill would need to contain — instructions, templates, examples, reference files, tool requirements
3. Any borderline candidates that might be better as a full agent, an MCP connection, or a simple prompt template instead


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Start with Phase 1 now.

What to Expect

Section titled “What to Expect”
  • Phase 1 — Claude reports what it already sees in memory. If the account is new, it skips to Phase 2.
  • Phase 2 — One question at a time. Expect 6–10 exchanges. Answer with specifics (“Monday status update for my manager”), not categories (“status stuff”).
  • Phase 3 — A ranked table plus a recommendation for the first skill to build, what to put in it, and which candidates are actually better suited to an agent, MCP connection, or saved prompt.

Next Steps

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