Design get context

Design — Get Context

De-risk the whole design effort by nailing the brief first. The cheapest fix is the question you ask before building. This skill produces ./design/context.md — the single source of truth every other design skill reads. Skipping it is the #1 cause of "that's not what I meant" rework.

When to use

• Any new design/UI task where the spec isn't already crisp.
• The request is a one-liner ("design a settings page") with implicit, unstated requirements.
• Before design-research, design-audit, design-ideate, or any build skill.

When NOT to use

• A solid ./design/context.md (or equivalent spec) already exists → proceed to the next skill.
• A pure visual-asset task with no UX → that's the Creative Production set.

What to interrogate (ask the gaps, don't dump all at once)

• Goal: what outcome or behavior change is this UI for? (not "a page" — why)
• User: who uses it, their context, tech comfort, frequency.
• Job-to-be-done: the core task the screen must make effortless.
• Constraints: existing stack, design system, brand, platform, deadline.
• Success criteria: how we'll know it worked — ideally measurable.
• Scope: must-have vs nice-to-have for v1; explicit non-goals.

Ask only the questions whose answers would change the design. If something's already given, don't re-ask. If the user can't answer "success criteria", propose 2-3 candidates and let them pick.

Workflow

1. Identify the critical unknowns (the ones that would change what you build).
2. Ask them concisely, grouped, not as a 20-question interrogation.
3. If the user's framing seems flawed (wrong problem, contradictory constraints), raise it and propose an alternative before proceeding.
4. Write ./design/context.md with answers + explicitly flagged assumptions + risks.
5. Hand off to design-research, design-audit, or design-ideate.

Output: ./design/context.md

# Context
goal: cut onboarding drop-off (currently 40% abandon at step 2)
user: first-time SaaS trial users, mixed tech comfort, on desktop
JTBD: get to "first value" (a created project) in under 2 minutes
constraints: stack=Next.js + Tailwind  DS=internal "Aurora"  platform=web  deadline=2wk
success: step-2 completion ↑ from 60% → 80%; time-to-first-project < 2min
scope v1: [3-step wizard, skip-able, progress saved]
non-goals: [mobile layout, SSO, team invites]
open assumptions: [users have a use case in mind on arrival]
⚠ risks: [if drop-off is a value problem not a UX problem, redesign won't fix it]

Quality bar

• Goal, user, and success criteria are all present (or explicitly deferred by the user).
• Success criteria are concrete enough to QA against later (design-qa reads these).
• Every guess is labeled an assumption — nothing is silently invented.
• Non-goals are stated so scope can't creep unnoticed.

Common pitfalls

• Starting to design before the brief is clear — the entire point of this skill is to prevent that.
• Question-dumping — 20 questions at once stalls the user. Ask the few that matter.
• Burying a guess as a fact — if you assumed it, say "assumption:".
• Accepting a flawed framing silently — if the user's asking for the wrong thing, surface it now (cheap) not after building (expensive).

Handoff

context.md → design-research (gather outside signal), design-audit (if improving existing UI), or design-ideate (go straight to directions). Every downstream skill reads this file.

Tooling

None required — this is a conversation + a written artifact.