01
The win: your first direction, live
Write a five-line context base for your product and generate direction #1 in the first half hour.
Done looks like Direction #1 on screen, from your brief.
Workshop
Three real directions for your product, by the end of the session.
Not more generations — a system. Set your context once, explore three genuinely different directions against it, and choose one with a taste checklist you wrote yourself.
The method
Prefix-first: the system makes output repeatable, not the prompt.
Everyone will teach you to generate. The hard part is generating consistent, usable output — the same product, the same brief, held across every exploration. Prefix-first sets a stable context base once (problem, user, constraints, anti-references, voice), then explores against it, so directions differ in taste rather than drifting in content.
The receipt: this is the method behind 15+ shipped prototypes and a published skill — the way I start design work every day.
Agenda
Six blocks. You work in all of them.
Teaching stays under 30% of the session. Every block ends in a do-it-now exercise on your own product — never a sample.
02
Harden the context base
Add constraints, anti-references, and decided things. Regenerate and compare — watch the drift disappear.
Done looks like A reusable context base that holds.
03
Diverge on purpose
Same prefix, different named direction each time. Generate directions #2 and #3 — different in taste, identical in brief.
Done looks like Three directions a stranger could tell apart.
04
Write your taste checklist
Taste as written criteria, not a feeling. Five items, then score all three directions against them.
Done looks like A checklist you'll reuse on everything.
05
Converge and refine
Pick the winner and run small, judged refinement passes — checked against the prefix and the checklist each time.
Done looks like A refined direction you can defend.
06
Defend it in writing
The rationale is part of the deliverable: why this direction, and what the other two taught you.
Done looks like Your direction board, complete.
You leave with
- A direction board: three explored directions of your real product, with a written selection rationale
- A reusable context base that keeps future sessions consistent
- Your personal taste checklist
Fit
Stacks well with
AI-Ready Design Systems — once you can direct the output, make the system deterministic. Brand Asset Engineering — turn your taste checklist into brand-as-code.
FAQ
Quick answers
What do I need before the session?
One real product or project, two sites whose design you admire, and the free Claude 101 pre-work (Anthropic's own course) so paid time starts above tool basics.
Do I need Claude Design specifically?
Claude Design is the primary tool; if you don't have access, the same method runs through Claude artifacts. The method is the product — it travels.
I'm not a designer. Will I keep up?
Yes. The taste checklist exists precisely so selection stops depending on trained intuition. PMs and founders do fine here.
Is there a recording?
Yes — every session is recorded. Live time is for critique and unblocking.
Seats
September cohort is forming.
Message with "Design Ideas" and your timezone.