jqaisystems Discovery Brief
A project priced before discovery is a project scoped by hope. This skill runs the discovery conversation and turns the answers into two working documents: the brief (the project's source of truth) and a strategy starter (the first thinking pass).
This is the interview counterpart to a client-facing intake form: the client-intake-builder skill generates an HTML questionnaire the CLIENT fills in alone; this skill interviews YOU (or processes the client's answers) and writes the documents.
Step 1: Read what already exists
Before asking anything, read whatever the user points at: an existing brief, intake form answers, emails, meeting notes, the client's website. Never ask a question the material already answers.
Step 2: Interview across seven areas
Ask in small batches, not twenty questions at once. Skip known answers.
- Business: what the client does, how they make money, what stage they are at (new, rebrand, growing).
- Audience: who buys now, who they WANT to buy, price positioning (budget, mid, premium).
- Competitors: two or three names, what the client envies or hates about each.
- Personality: three to five adjectives the brand should own, two or three it must never be.
- Style direction: references they love, styles or colours that are off-limits.
- Deliverables: exactly what the project produces (logo, identity system, guidelines, packaging, website, motion, other).
- Timeline and budget: deadline and budget range, mapped against the user's own tiers if a pricing config exists (see the
proposal-writerskill).
Step 3: Write the two documents
The brief (default Brief.md in the client's folder): status, started date, scope checklist, and every answer organized under the seven areas. Keep the client's own words where they are vivid; quote them. Unknowns stay visible as open items, never filled with guesses.
The strategy starter (default Strategy/01_Strategy.md):
# <Client> Strategy Starter
## Positioning (draft)
One sentence: for WHOM, the brand is WHAT, unlike COMPETITOR because REASON.
## Audience snapshot
## Competitive picture
What competitors do visually or verbally, and where the gap is.
## Personality and tone
The adjectives, and what each means in practice.
## Direction hypotheses
Two or three distinct directions worth exploring, two lines each.
## Open questions
Everything discovery did not answer.
Step 4: Report
Summarize the positioning sentence and the direction hypotheses in chat, with both file paths. Suggest the natural next step (a proposal, or moodboards).
Rules
- Never fabricate answers. Unanswered questions go under Open questions.
- One project per run. Discovery does not batch.
- No em dashes in any output.
Output
A completed brief and a strategy starter document, plus a chat summary of positioning and direction hypotheses.