intuitive-interviewing

name	intuitive-interviewing
description	Use when conducting any interview-style flow with a user (building a spell, refining one, gathering requirements). Picks depth, filters questions by relevance, matches against known shapes, and detects mid-stream pivots.
kind	workflow
audience	anyone
ai-tools	any
complexity	guided
time	5-15 min
version	1.0.0
source	bundled

Intuitive Interviewing

What this does

Turns a 12-phase interview into a context-aware conversation. Detects what the user already said, picks the right depth, matches against known workflow shapes, drafts a strawman early, and pivots when scope shifts.

When to use

• Inside building-a-spell (Stage 1)
• Inside refining-a-spell (when capturing what changed)
• Anywhere a user-facing requirements interview happens

What you bring (Inputs)

A context dictionary from the calling skill, containing whatever was already extracted (from the user's trigger phrase + any prior turns).

What you get (Output)

A filled interview: every required frontmatter field has a value, every required body section has content, plus any kind-specific extras.

How it works (Steps)

This is a workflow with explicit stages and gates.

Stages

Stage A: Pick depth

Inspect the context dictionary. Pick depth as follows:

If...	Use depth
User explicitly said "quick", "simple", "just"	Express
Context dictionary has 4+ extracted fields already	Express
Kind is discipline	Deep (always)
User is first-time (no $WIZARD_HOME content)	Standard
Otherwise	Standard

Allow user override: "Tell me which depth you'd like (express / standard / deep)" — but only if depth was ambiguous.

Output handed to next stage: chosen depth.

Stage B: Match against workflow shapes

Read all shapes under skills/building-a-spell/workflow-shapes/. Score each by overlap of:

• Trigger keywords vs context dictionary's name and description
• Output type vs context dictionary's output
• Step count and shape

If top score >= 0.7, propose it as a strawman:

"This looks like a <shape-name>. Here's a draft. What would you change?"

If top score < 0.7, skip to Stage C.

Output handed to next stage: strawman draft (or none).

Stage C: Relevance-filtered question pass

Use the question pool at skills/building-a-spell/interview-questions.md. For each question in the depth's "Always ask" list:

• Is it already answered by context or strawman? Skip.
• Is it answered by inference from a related answer? Confirm in passing, don't ask separately.
• Otherwise, ask it.

For "Conditionally ask" questions, ask only when the trigger condition fires.

For "Skip" questions, never ask in this depth.

Hard rule: Never ask the user a question whose answer is already in the conversation. This is the #1 reason interviews feel rote.

Output handed to next stage: a complete interview record.

Stage D: Detect mid-stream pivot

After every user response, check:

Pivot signal	Action
User says "actually let's also do X"	Likely two spells — split now
User answers in a way that contradicts an earlier extraction	Pause, confirm, update context
User shifts audience ("oh, this would also be for my whole team")	Re-route via Stage A with new audience
User shifts kind (mentions a rule when describing content)	Confirm: "This sounds like a discipline kind. Want to switch?"

Output handed to next stage: optionally re-routed flow.

Stage E: Confirm and hand back

Show the user the complete interview record, ask "anything to change?", then hand back to the caller.

Checkpoints

Pass each stage gate only when:

• After A: depth is set
• After B: strawman either accepted-with-deltas or explicitly skipped
• After C: every required field has a value
• After D: no unresolved pivot signals
• After E: user confirmed (or explicitly declined to confirm)

Loop-back conditions

Return to Stage A when:

• A pivot in Stage D changes the kind or depth significantly
• The strawman in Stage B was wrong shape — re-run Stage B with the corrected output type

The Batch Iron Law (Second Iron Law)

When the calling skill is building multiple spells in one session, complete one spell end-to-end (interview → strawman → try-it → save) before starting the next interview. The interview for spell N+1 cannot start until spell N has reached "saved" state.

Forbidden excuses

If you think...	Reality
"I'll batch the interviews and test them all at the end"	Interviews need test feedback to refine. Sequence them.
"They share context so I can save tokens"	Token savings are illusory; quality cost is real.
"Let me draft all three first, then iterate"	Drafting in batch encourages copy-paste defects.

All forbidden excuses get the same response: Finish this one through save. Then start the next.

Quality bar

The interview is good enough when:

• Every required frontmatter field is filled
• Every required body section has content
• The user has not been asked a question whose answer they already gave
• Strawman was offered if any shape matched at 0.7+
• Mid-stream pivots, if any, were named explicitly and the user agreed to the new direction

Variations

• Re-interview after refine: skip Stage B (no strawman); start at Stage C with the existing skill as base context.
• Headless mode: when called by another skill (not user-facing), all stages run silently from a structured input.

Example

Context dictionary on entry:

{name: "preparing-for-a-meeting", kind: "workflow",
 audience: "knowledge-worker", complexity: "guided"}

• Stage A: Picks Standard. Two extracted fields, knowledge-worker audience.
• Stage B: Workflow-shape match: pre-meeting-prep at 0.85. Strawman shown.
• Stage C: Asks 3 questions (the strawman covered the rest).
• Stage D: User adds "and also for 1:1s" mid-flow. Confirmed: still one spell; widen scope of When to use.
• Stage E: Confirmed. Handed back to caller.

Total interview: 4 messages. Felt like a chat, not a form.