Skill Workflow · Step 01

Identify the Task

Pick the right thing before you write a single line. Most failed skills started with the wrong target.

When to do this

Before you write anything else. No instructions, no examples, no setup. Just the question: what task is this actually for?

The single question

Which task do you (or your team) repeat more than twice a month, where the output should be the same kind of good every time?

Hot signal

Worth a skill

Explaining the task to a new hire takes more than ten minutes. You catch yourself saying "let me show you how I do it" again and again.

Not a skill

One-off task. Highly creative work that needs a different angle every time. Decisions that change weekly. Don't force a skill on these.

Five real examples

From my own setup, ranked from highest hit-rate to most niche:

Writing Skill — every long-form text goes through it, voice stays the same.
Proposal Builder — discovery notes in, full proposal out.
Bookkeeping — receipts in, Zoho-ready Excel out.
Carousel — hook + concept in, ten branded slides out.
Reel — topic in, full script with timings out.

Now do it — paste this into Claude

Prompt

Use the skill-creator skill.

Step 1: identify the task.
Ask me what I actually repeat more than twice a month.
Then help me finish one sentence:
"This skill does ___" — in twelve words or less.

If skill-creator is not active yet, see the setup on the Skills start page.

Key Rule

Output of this step: one sentence.

Write down: "This skill does X." If you cannot finish that sentence in twelve words, you have not found the task yet. Keep looking.