Build-a-Skill - Your One-Pager
Keep this in front of you for the whole session. Everything you need to know in a single page. No code, no setup, no install - just you, a chatbot, and a real task from your week.
What’s a “Skill”?
A Skill is a one-page, reusable recipe you paste into any chatbot (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude - whichever you have) to reliably repeat a real task. Think of it as a saved instruction sheet for the AI: write it once, get a consistent result every time.
It is not code. It is not an app. It is a document you own, that turns “summarise this for me” (vague, different every time) into a dependable, repeatable output your team can trust.
The task you’ll automate today is one you already do - your weekly status update, a messy meeting note tidy-up, a triage of incoming requests. The AI does the typing; you keep the judgement.
The 3 habits behind every good Skill
These come from the five ways we work with AI. Three of them carry most of the weight in this session:
| Habit | What it means here |
|---|---|
| Way #1 - Describe before you generate | Decide what “good” looks like before you prompt. The template makes you write the Output shape before the prompt itself. A clear spec beats a clever prompt. |
| Way #2 - A human always signs the work | The AI drafts; you review and own it. Every Skill has a built-in “check these 1–2 things” step. Nothing leaves your hands unread. |
| Way #3 - Mind what you feed it | Treat every prompt like a public postcard, not a sealed envelope. Anonymise first - real names become “Person A”, clients become “Client 1”. When in doubt, leave it out. |
The other two (Way #4 small steps, Way #5 simple + write the why) show up too: you’ll build your Skill one instruction at a time, and you’ll note where you keep it so it isn’t lost.
The 7-section template, at a glance
You’ll fill in the SKILL-template.md top to bottom. The order is deliberate.
| # | Section | The one thing it answers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Goal | What real task does this replace, and when do I reach for it? |
| 2 | Inputs + PRIVACY CHECK | What do I paste in - and what must I remove or disguise first? (Way #3) |
| 3 | Output | What does “good” look like? (Write this BEFORE the prompt - Way #1) |
| 4 | Instructions / Prompt | The exact words anyone can copy and paste. |
| 5 | Worked Example | One real, anonymised run - proof it works and a yardstick for next time. |
| 6 | Guardrails | How to stay safe: what never to paste, what to double-check (Way #2). |
| 7 | Reuse notes | Who owns it, when it was updated, and where it lives so others can find it. |
The steps you’ll follow today
- Pick one real task you do most weeks. Smaller is better - “tidy my Monday call notes,” not “run the programme.”
- Open the template (SKILL-template.md) and start a copy of your own.
- Write the Output first (section 3) - describe the table, the columns, the length, the tone before you touch the prompt.
- Anonymise your sample using the PRIVACY CHECK (section 2). Swap names, strip confidential figures. Use the sample-data if you’d rather not use your own.
- Write and run the prompt (section 4) against your chatbot. Add one instruction at a time and re-run - that’s small steps in action (Way #4).
- Find one thing the AI got wrong. Made-up date, invented owner, wrong figure. Fix it. That’s you signing the work (Way #2).
- Capture the worked example and reuse notes (sections 5 & 7) so future-you doesn’t start from scratch.
Stuck for a task? The sample-data folder has meeting notes, an expenses sheet, and a request list ready to practise on - all synthetic, safe to paste.
Where your finished Skills live afterwards
A Skill that lives only on your laptop dies on your laptop. Before you leave:
- Save it where your team already looks - the shared drive, the team wiki, the channel you all read. (Way #5: write down the why, and where it lives, in section 7.)
- Name an owner and a date so the next person knows it’s current and who to ask.
- Tell one colleague it exists. Reuse is the whole point - a Skill used by five people is worth five times the one you wrote.
Then fill in your Monday Commitment Card: the one task you’ll automate this week, and who’s keeping you honest.
Built at Innovation Day. The five ways of working: ways-of-working.md.
Downloads for this session
Grab the templates and sample files used here.