Chapter 02 · The Build Path
Skip stage one or two and you join the 95 percent that fail. Do them in order and the odds flip hard the other way.
01 · The Funnel Method
Break the massive goal into steps, then do the first one. Most people skip prompt two and leave with vague advice. Prompt two is the work.
Pair it with four ingredients
The question, narrow enough to be useful.
Your docs, emails, goals. Upload it.
The expert choices. If unsure, ask the model what choices matter.
What "good" looks like, measurable. "50% open rate."
02 · The five-stage path
So a stranger could run it without asking you a question. Do it with another person who asks "why." Skip this and nothing downstream works.
Paste criteria + a real old input into Claude. Nothing connected. Does it apply your logic the way you would? Tighten, repeat.
Notes to task tracker. If it fails today, only you notice. Your sandbox. Watch it on messy real inputs for a week.
Now it produces things clients see. It drafts; you approve. Most operators should plant their flag here for the long term.
Coordination and cross-session memory now matter. This is where a framework earns its place. Not before.
Stage 1 needs nothing. Stage 2 turns on model access. Stage 3 turns on tools. Stage 4 turns on oversight. Stage 5 turns on memory + coordination.
03 · A real workflow, four ways
Client onboarding
The scenario: a client signs. Folders, welcome email, kickoff, project setup, intake chasing. 6 to 11 hours by hand, every single time. Here is the exact same job built at each level.
Contract signed creates Drive folder, adds to CRM, pushes to Mailchimp. Silent break the day a field gets renamed.
Reads the call transcript, drafts an email that references the client's Q3 deadline. You send. Same quality Friday 4pm as Monday 9am.
Email drafted, project built, deadlines pulled from contract, kickoff slot suggested. You review one package. Most service businesses stop here.
Pings you on the weird stuff. Danger: failures hide. A level-one break is loud. A level-four break is silent for three weeks.
Give an agent access only to what this workflow needs. Meta's AI safety lead gave one inbox access; it deleted the inbox. The AI worked fine. The way it was wired up did not.
04 · A real workflow, five steps
Inbound inquiry handling
The scenario: leads land in your inbox at random. A few are gold, most are not, all of them eat time. Here is the build, one safe step at a time.
Fields that matter, three buckets, criteria each. No tool yet.
Paste 5 old inquiries. Discover where your definition is implicit. Tighten.
Live inquiries scored and flagged. Nothing sends. Often enough on its own.
Two agents: one sorts, one drafts. You approve before anything sends.
Auto-send polite declines. Qualified stays gated until 30+ are right.
Each step is its own decision. The one-step version already wins.
The handoff is the contract. If you cannot describe what one agent passes to the next in a sentence, the team is not designed yet. Skills hold both sides to it.