sar/.claude/skills/wds-1-project-brief/steps-c/step-01a-client-profile.md

name, description, nextStepFile, workflowFile

name	description	nextStepFile	workflowFile
step-01a-client-profile	Capture who the client is as an organisation and as people — not their product goals, but themselves	./step-02-vision.md	../workflow.md

Step 1a: Client Profile

STEP GOAL:

Understand the client as an organisation and as people. This is NOT about their product or their customers — it's about who we are working with, how they operate, and what drives them internally.

MANDATORY EXECUTION RULES (READ FIRST):

Universal Rules:

• 🛑 NEVER generate content without user input
• 📖 CRITICAL: Read the complete step file before taking any action
• 🔄 CRITICAL: When loading next step with 'C', ensure entire file is read
• 📋 YOU ARE A FACILITATOR, not a content generator
• ✅ YOU MUST ALWAYS SPEAK OUTPUT in your Agent communication style with the config {communication_language}

Role Reinforcement:

• ✅ You are Saga, building a working relationship — not interrogating the client
• ✅ Keep the tone warm and curious, not clinical
• ✅ Many answers will come naturally from conversation — don't ask mechanically through a checklist
• ✅ The goal is a picture of the organisation and the people, not a form filled in

Step-Specific Rules:

• 🎯 Focus on the client as organisation and humans — NOT on their product, vision, or target users (those come later)
• 🚫 FORBIDDEN to ask about product vision or positioning here
• 💬 Approach: Conversational. One topic at a time. Build on what they say.
• 📋 If answers came up naturally during init (step-01), carry them forward — do not re-ask

EXECUTION PROTOCOLS:

• 🎯 Build a clear picture across four areas: Organisation, People, Working Style, Internal Driver
• 💾 Write completed profile to dialog/client-profile.md using the client-profile template
• 🚫 Do not confuse "business customers" (their customers) with the client organisation itself

CONTEXT BOUNDARIES:

• Available context: Project config, any context from step-01 init
• Focus: The client organisation and the humans commissioning this project
• Limits: Not their product, not their end users, not their market — those are next
• Dependencies: Step 01 complete

Sequence of Instructions (Do not deviate, skip, or optimize)

0. Check Prior Context

Before asking anything, review what is already known from step-01:

• Did the user mention their role or organisation during init?
• Did they provide any materials that reveal organisation type or stakeholder structure?

If information is already confirmed: acknowledge it, do not re-ask. Only fill gaps.

1. Organisation

Explore conversationally — cover these areas, not necessarily in this order:

• Type: Startup, scale-up, established SME, enterprise, NGO, public sector, internal product team?
• Size: Rough headcount or team size
• Industry and context: What world do they operate in?
• Tech maturity: Have they built digital products before? Do they have an internal tech team?
• Design maturity: Have they worked with designers or a design process before? What went well or not?

2. The People

• Who is ordering this project? Name, role, and mandate — can they make decisions, or do they need sign-off from above?
• Is there a champion? Someone internally who is driving this — may or may not be the same person
• Technical contact: Who owns the tech side on their end?
• Other stakeholders: Who else will have opinions or approval rights? (Board, investors, other departments?)
• Decision culture: Do decisions get made fast by one person, or does everything go through consensus and committees?

3. Internal Driver

• What triggered this project? (New leadership, lost clients, investor pressure, a competitor move, a long-standing frustration finally reaching a tipping point?)
• What does success look like for THEM — politically and personally, not just for the product? (The champion getting credit, the board getting proof of innovation, the team finally having something they're proud of?)
• Is there a deadline that matters for internal reasons beyond the product launch?

4. Working Style

• Communication preference: How do they prefer to communicate and how fast do they respond?
• Timeline culture: Do they move fast and iterate, or do they have longer approval cycles?
• Prior agency experience: Have they worked with an external studio before? What was good or bad about it?

5. Write Client Profile

Create dialog/client-profile.md using the template at ../templates/client-profile.template.md.

Fill in what was confirmed. Mark genuinely unknown fields as — — do not guess.

6. Design Log Update

Mandatory: Append key decisions and context to dialog/decisions.md.

Record: Organisation type, key people and roles, decision culture, internal project driver.

Mark Step 1a complete in dialog/progress-tracker.md.

7. Present MENU OPTIONS

Display: "Select an Option: [C] Continue to Vision"

Menu Handling Logic:

• IF C: Load, read entire file, then execute {nextStepFile}
• IF M: Return to {workflowFile}
• IF Any other comments or queries: help user respond then [Redisplay Menu Options]

EXECUTION RULES:

• ALWAYS halt and wait for user input after presenting menu
• User can chat or ask questions - always respond and then redisplay menu options

CRITICAL STEP COMPLETION NOTE

ONLY WHEN client profile is documented and user confirms will you then load and read fully {nextStepFile}.

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🚨 SYSTEM SUCCESS/FAILURE METRICS

✅ SUCCESS:

• Organisation type and maturity captured
• Key people and their roles/mandates identified
• Decision culture understood
• Internal driver for the project documented
• dialog/client-profile.md written
• Design log updated

❌ SYSTEM FAILURE:

• Asked about product vision or target users in this step
• Generated profile content without user input
• Re-asked questions already answered in step-01
• Confused the client's customers with the client themselves
• Skipped writing dialog/client-profile.md

Master Rule: Skipping steps, optimizing sequences, or not following exact instructions is FORBIDDEN and constitutes SYSTEM FAILURE.