blog-experiential

name	blog-experiential
description	Write experiential articles for marvinzhang.dev following 3-stage workflow (Outline → Writing → Refine). Use for personal insights, lessons learned, project retrospectives, and reflective pieces. Composes foundation skills.
metadata	{"author":"marvinzhang","version":"2.0","workflow":"3-stage","style":"experiential","composes":"foundation/*"}

Blog Writing: Experiential Style

Personal, reflective articles sharing lessons learned and practical insights from real experiences.

Required Skills

Load these alongside this workflow:

• foundation/formatting — MDX, Mermaid, code blocks
• foundation/localization — EN/ZH bilingual translation
• foundation/quality — Validation commands, checklists
• foundation/writing-style — Economist principles, tone
• foundation/chat-driven — All interaction happens in chat

When to Use

• Lessons learned from projects or experiences
• Project retrospectives and case studies
• Career reflections and growth stories
• Problem-solving journeys

Example topics: "What I Learned from 5 Years in Open Source", "My Journey from Vibe Coding to SDD"

Getting Started

AI creates the spec, then gathers input through conversation:

lean-spec create "article-slug" --template=experiential

AI asks questions from the conversation guide 1-2 at a time — covering context, challenge, approach, lessons, and advice. Author answers in chat. AI writes everything to the spec.

[See conversation guide: references/questionnaire.md]

Workflow: 3 Stages

Stage 1: Outline (1 interaction)

Narrative arc: Context → Challenge → Approach → Outcome → Lessons

• Introduction (300-500 words): Compelling moment, context, relevance
• The Context (400-600 words): Situation, initial assumptions
• The Challenge (500-700 words): What went wrong, turning points
• The Approach (500-700 words): How you tackled it, iterations
• The Outcome (400-600 words): Results, unexpected learnings
• Lessons & Takeaways (400-600 words): 3-5 concrete lessons

Deliverables: specs/{spec-number}-{slug}/outline.md

Stage 2: Writing (3-5 interactions)

Write ONE section per interaction directly to blog/YYYY-MM-DD-slug.mdx (with unlisted: true).

Section checklist:

• Specific examples with details
• Honest about challenges and failures
• Visual element where helpful
• Lessons clearly articulated
• Natural story flow

Stage 3: Refine (1 interaction)

1. Story review: narrative cohesion and flow
2. Lesson validation: insights clear and actionable
3. Tone check: balance humility with authority
4. Chinese translation: apply 形不同而意同 principle
5. Final validation: pnpm run build + pnpm run validate:zh-bold-source

Experiential-Specific Principles

Specificity Over Generality

❌ "Communication is important in teams"
✅ "When our team missed a critical deadline because I assumed others understood
   the database migration requirements, I learned to over-communicate technical
   dependencies"

Honesty and Vulnerability

Share failures openly — what went wrong, what you misunderstood, how you recovered, what you'd do differently.

Actionable Lessons

❌ "Be more careful with technical debt"
✅ "Set a 'debt ceiling': if fixing takes >2 hours, create a spec and schedule it.
    We reduced emergency fixes by 60% after implementing this rule."

Quality Gates (Experiential-Specific)

• Specific stories with details, not vague generalities
• Lessons clearly articulated and actionable
• Honest about failures and mistakes
• Balance of narrative and technical content
• Natural story flow throughout

References

• references/questionnaire.md — Questionnaire guide