An idea’s road to a demo — prompt by prompt, skill by skill

Every prompt is a skill, every skill a stage. This project ran on a library I built myself; hover a service to read when it is called.

Ember: the 89 services applied on this project · grey: the 30 not applied.

1. 017 skills

   Strategy

   Where the organisation is going and why — decided before anything is researched or built.

   • 01.1Business StrategyWhere to compete and how to win — chosen before any product or design decision means anything.
   • 01.2Experience StrategyWhen every touchpoint optimises locally and the whole contradicts itself, someone defines what the experience is for.
   • 01.3Product StrategyWith several products, deciding which to invest in, which to maintain and which to retire.
   • 01.4Brand StrategyWhen the brand means different things inside and out, or a new offering must sit inside an existing one.
   • 01.5Digital StrategyWhen digital investment is scattered across channels with no shared logic about what digital is for.
   • 01.6AI StrategyAI is asked for from the top without a clear view of where it creates value, what it costs and what it risks.
   • 01.7Transformation StrategyWhen the strategy needs the organisation to work differently, not just to build something new.
2. 028 skills

   Research & Intelligence

   Evidence about users, markets and competitors, with what was observed kept apart from what was concluded.

   • 02.1User ResearchWhen decisions depend on how people actually behave and why, and the team is guessing.
   • 02.2Customer ResearchWhen the question is the commercial relationship — who buys, why they choose, why they leave.
   • 02.3Market ResearchA market-level question: size, structure, demand, entry viability, regulatory shape.
   • 02.4Competitive IntelligencePositioning and pricing built on what competitors actually do — not what the sales team believes.
   • 02.5Behavioral ResearchWhen behaviour and stated intention diverge — wanting it and not using it, dropping at a step that looks fine.
   • 02.6Data / Insight SynthesisEvidence sits in several places and nobody can say what it collectively means.
   • 02.7Trend / ForesightDecisions with long payback need a view of how the ground may shift.
   • 02.8AI-assisted ResearchWhen research volume exceeds hand analysis and AI can accelerate the mechanical parts.
3. 038 skills

   Product

   Direction and evidence become a defined product: what gets built, for whom, in what order.

   • 03.1Product DiscoveryBefore anything is built: establishing that the problem is real, valuable and solvable for this company.
   • 03.2Product DefinitionA validated direction becomes a scope precise enough to build against.
   • 03.3Product StrategyOne product's defensible direction: who it is for, what it wins on, what it will not do.
   • 03.4Product ManagementDeciding what gets built next, saying no coherently, keeping stakeholders aligned.
   • 03.5RoadmappingA shared view of sequence and intent — without becoming a delivery-date contract.
   • 03.6Product ValidationTesting a belief about value, demand or usability before significant build cost is committed.
   • 03.7Product AnalyticsBehavioural evidence from the product itself: what people do, where they stop, what predicts staying.
   • 03.8Product GrowthGrowth from the product itself — activation, retention, expansion, referral — rather than from spend.
4. 049 skills

   Experience Design

   What people actually meet: structure, flow, interface, service and the joins between channels.

   • 04.1UX DesignA product's structure — flows, screens, states — designed before surface work makes change expensive.
   • 04.2UI DesignStructure is locked, and the surface is designed to a buildable standard.
   • 04.3Product DesignOne designer owns a problem end to end — from understanding it to shipped behaviour.
   • 04.4Interaction DesignHow the interface responds — feedback, timing, motion, gesture — designed rather than defaulted.
   • 04.5Information ArchitectureUsers cannot find things, teams argue about menus, or a growing product's structure no longer holds.
   • 04.6Service DesignThe experience spans channels and back-stage operations, where designing only the screen fixes nothing.
   • 04.7Customer ExperienceManaging the customer relationship across its whole lifecycle rather than optimising single interactions.
   • 04.8Employee ExperienceInternal tools slow employees down — and the customer experience inherits every one of those frictions.
   • 04.9Omnichannel ExperienceCustomers move between channels mid-task and the experience currently restarts each time.
5. 057 skills

   Content & Conversational

   The product's words and dialogue — what is said, in what voice, and how it answers back.

   • 05.1Content DesignWhen the content is the experience — what is said, in what order, at what depth.
   • 05.2UX WritingInterface text written or fixed — labels, errors, empty states, confirmations, notifications.
   • 05.3Content StrategyContent produced without shared purpose, decaying without an owner, or duplicating itself across surfaces.
   • 05.4Conversation DesignDesigning a conversational interface: what it can do, how it asks, how it fails, when it hands over.
   • 05.5Voice UXThe interface is heard rather than seen — nothing can be scanned and everything must be remembered.
   • 05.6Generative UIParts of the interface are assembled at runtime by a model rather than designed screen by screen.
   • 05.7AI Interaction DesignA surface powered by an uncertain model: the interaction sets expectations, exposes control, survives being wrong.
6. 068 skills

   Brand & Creative

   How the brand looks, sounds and feels — identity, campaign thinking and the systems that keep it consistent.

   • 06.1Brand IdentityBrand strategy becomes a visual and verbal system that works everywhere it will appear.
   • 06.2Creative StrategyBefore execution: the insight, the message, and the reason this will move someone.
   • 06.3Art DirectionOne visual direction across pieces, formats and producers, so the work reads as one campaign.
   • 06.4CopywritingPersuasive copy — headlines, body, calls to action — carrying the proposition in the brand's voice.
   • 06.5CampaignA coordinated set of communications running across channels toward one objective and one message.
   • 06.6Visual DesignIndividual pieces designed to the brand and art direction — layouts, graphics, presentation, marketing surfaces.
   • 06.7Social CreativeCreative that works inside social platforms, where native behaviour and the first second decide everything.
   • 06.8ExperientialThe brand experienced physically — event, installation, stand, pop-up, retail moment.
7. 077 skills

   Design Systems

   Design decisions as reusable, governed, accessible material: tokens, components, patterns.

   • 07.1Design System StrategyBefore building a system: whether one is justified, what it covers, who it serves, who funds it.
   • 07.2Design TokensDesign decisions as named values shared by design tools and code, so they change in one place.
   • 07.3Component SystemsComponents built once, correctly, and consumed everywhere — in design and in code.
   • 07.4Pattern LibrariesRecurring solutions above component level — forms, tables, empty states, onboarding — solved once.
   • 07.5Design GovernanceThe system survives contact with many teams: contribution, review, versioning, deprecation, drift control.
   • 07.6AccessibilityProducts usable by people with disabilities — designed in, not audited on at the end.
   • 07.7DesignOpsDesign work slowed by how the team works rather than by the design problems themselves.
8. 088 skills

   Technology

   How the product is shaped and run: architecture, front and back end, integration, performance, security.

   • 08.1Technical StrategyTechnology choices that serve the business direction over years, where the estate is inherited or accidental.
   • 08.2Solution ArchitectureOne solution designed across systems — components, data flow, integrations, boundaries — before implementation.
   • 08.3Web DevelopmentA web product built to a production standard — performant, accessible, maintainable.
   • 08.4Mobile DevelopmentA mobile application built, released and maintained through app store cycles.
   • 08.5Platform EngineeringProduct teams slowed by infrastructure, environments and deployment rather than by product problems.
   • 08.6CloudInfrastructure designed, migrated or optimised on cloud, with cost and resilience as explicit inputs.
   • 08.7API / IntegrationSystems exchanging data reliably — including when the other side misbehaves.
   • 08.8Technical DeliveryDesign and specification become running software, predictably and without quality surprises.
9. 099 skills

   AI & Agentic Experience

   Capability powered by models and agents — including how it behaves when it is wrong.

   • 09.1AI Product DesignA feature powered by a probabilistic model: the design works when it is right, wrong and refusing.
   • 09.2Generative AIWhen generation is the core capability, quality, cost and control are engineered rather than hoped for.
   • 09.3AI AgentsA model taking actions through tools across multiple steps rather than answering a single question.
   • 09.4Agentic UXUsers delegate work to a system that acts for them — safely, legibly and reversibly.
   • 09.5Conversational AIA model-powered conversational system serving real users reliably and within its competence.
   • 09.6AI PrototypingTesting an AI idea quickly for feasibility and value before committing to engineering.
   • 09.7AI EngineeringAI capability running in production — reliable, observable, evaluated and affordable.
   • 09.8AI Workflow AutomationRepetitive knowledge work partly automated with AI inside an existing process.
   • 09.9AI GovernanceGoverning AI use: what is allowed, who is accountable, how quality and harm are monitored.
10. 108 skills

    Data & Analytics

    Making data trustworthy, measured and decision-bearing: pipelines, analysis, experimentation.

    • 10.1Data StrategyData scattered, inconsistently defined and untrusted, with decisions made system by system.
    • 10.2Product AnalyticsBuilding the analytics capability itself: instrumentation, pipeline, governance and tooling.
    • 10.3Customer AnalyticsCommercial decisions needing customer-level understanding: value, segmentation, churn risk, lifecycle.
    • 10.4Data EngineeringData moved reliably from sources to a modelled, trusted, queryable state.
    • 10.5Data ScienceWhen a statistical or machine-learning model is the right tool for a decision that recurs at volume.
    • 10.6ExperimentationAnswering a causal question — did this change cause that outcome — rather than observing correlation.
    • 10.7MeasurementA measurement framework: what success means and how it will be observed.
    • 10.8Decision IntelligenceRecurring high-stakes decisions made systematically, with options, evidence, uncertainty and trade-offs explicit.
11. 118 skills

    Growth & Marketing

    Getting the product to market and growing it: positioning, acquisition, lifecycle, conversion.

    • 11.1Go-to-MarketA product reaching a market — positioning, channel plan, pricing and launch sequence.
    • 11.2Growth StrategyGrowth planned as a system — which loops, which channels, which constraints — not as a list of tactics.
    • 11.3Performance MarketingPaid acquisition run against a commercial target rather than platform vanity metrics.
    • 11.4CRMCustomer relationships managed systematically across sales and service: data, process and communication.
    • 11.5LifecycleCommunication orchestrated across the lifecycle — onboarding, adoption, retention, win-back — triggered by behaviour.
    • 11.6SEO / GEOOrganic discovery in search engines and, increasingly, in generative answer engines that cite rather than link.
    • 11.7Marketing AutomationMarketing communication and routing running automatically at volume, reliably and within consent rules.
    • 11.8Conversion OptimizationA funnel losing people at identifiable points, where the losses can be reduced systematically.
12. 128 skills

    Commerce

    Selling: the storefront, the catalogue, payment and checkout, and the loyalty behind a second purchase.

    • 12.1E-commerceAn online store designed end to end — discovery, product, cart, checkout, post-purchase.
    • 12.2MarketplaceA two-sided platform designed or grown, where supply and demand each depend on the other.
    • 12.3Commerce StrategyCommercial model decisions before execution: channels, assortment, pricing architecture, margin structure.
    • 12.4Product CatalogProduct data structured so customers can find, compare and trust it, and operations can maintain it.
    • 12.5PaymentsPayment designed and integrated — methods, authentication, failures, refunds — in a regulated, high-consequence flow.
    • 12.6CheckoutThe path from cart to completed order designed for completion rather than for data collection.
    • 12.7LoyaltyA loyalty or membership programme designed — or an existing one costing more than it returns.
    • 12.8Commerce PlatformsA commerce platform selected, integrated or replaced — a decision with multi-year consequences.
13. 137 skills

    Innovation

    Bets on what does not exist yet: portfolio logic, new business models, ventures, concepts.

    • 13.1Innovation StrategyInvesting in what does not exist yet, with a defensible answer to where, how much and under what rules.
    • 13.2New Business ModelsNot what to build but how value is created, delivered and captured — and who pays whom.
    • 13.3Venture BuildingA new business stood up from zero — team, product, first customers — inside or alongside the organisation.
    • 13.4PrototypingMaking an idea concrete enough to provoke a real reaction, before anyone commits to building it.
    • 13.5Emerging TechnologyA technology new or newly viable, and whether it matters here, now or later.
    • 13.6Future ConceptsA vivid, concrete picture of a future product to align people and unlock investment.
    • 13.7Organizational InnovationWhen the constraint is the organisation itself — incentives, approval paths, tolerance for failed bets.
14. 148 skills

    Implementation & Delivery

    Getting things built and released: from the first working version through launch and the loop after it.

    • 14.1MVP DevelopmentA first real version reaching real users — small enough to build quickly, complete enough to be usable.
    • 14.2Rapid PrototypingA question only answerable by building it — and the answer changes how the real thing gets built.
    • 14.3Design-to-CodeApproved designs becoming implemented interface without drift, and staying together afterwards.
    • 14.4Product DevelopmentApproved scope becoming working, maintainable software someone other than its author can operate.
    • 14.5Agile DeliveryA delivery cadence — planning, flow, review — that produces shippable increments rather than ceremony.
    • 14.6Program ManagementSeveral teams delivering one outcome, where the risk lives in the dependencies between them.
    • 14.7LaunchSomething going live: the work is sequencing, readiness and the first hours after release.
    • 14.8Continuous ImprovementThe product is live and the work shifts from shipping to improving it against evidence.
15. 159 skills

    Operations & Governance

    How the work runs and stays trustworthy: quality, accessibility, privacy and reporting.

    • 15.1DesignOpsA design organisation limited by how it operates — tooling, rituals, hiring, workload — not by design skill.
    • 15.2ProductOpsProduct decisions slow or inconsistent because the supporting machinery is weak.
    • 15.3AI OpsAI capability in production, run as an ongoing operation — monitored, versioned, evaluated and paid for.
    • 15.4ResearchOpsResearch happening but slow to start, hard to find afterwards, or inconsistent in how data is handled.
    • 15.5Process DesignA recurring process designed or repaired — steps, roles, handoffs and the systems supporting them.
    • 15.6Quality EngineeringQuality engineered into how the product is built and released, rather than inspected at the end.
    • 15.7Accessibility GovernanceAccessibility held across an organisation over time, not achieved once and lost in the next release.
    • 15.8Privacy & CompliancePersonal data is processed, and the product is designed and run in a way counsel can stand behind.
    • 15.9Measurement & ReportingA trustworthy, repeatable account of performance, delivered to the people who act on it.