Client Intake — Two-Phase Kickstart

This skill runs in two phases. Phase 1 takes the client's answers to 10 standard questions and produces a draft client brief. Phase 2 analyses those answers, identifies gaps, and generates 5–7 targeted follow-up questions. After the follow-up answers are received, the brief is finalised and the engagement is ready to proceed.

Apply the east-african-english skill for tone throughout all outputs.

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Use when

• Two-phase client intake skill. Phase 1 presents 10 standard domain-mapped questions (also used as a website intake form), then generates a draft client brief from the answers. Phase 2 generates 5–7 targeted follow-up questions based on the answers to close gaps and confirm direction. Together, the two phases capture everything needed to begin strategy work. Invoke at the very start of every new client engagement, before any other onboarding or strategy skill.
• Use this skill when it is the closest match to the requested deliverable or workflow.

Do not use when

• Do not use this skill for graphic design, video production, software development, or legal advice beyond the repository's stated scope.
• Do not use it when another skill in this repository is clearly more specific to the requested deliverable.

Workflow

1. Confirm the objective, audience, and context needed to run this skill well.
2. Follow the section order and decision rules in this SKILL.md; do not skip mandatory steps or required fields.
3. Review the draft against the quality criteria, then deliver the final output in markdown unless the skill specifies another format.

Anti-Patterns

• Do not invent client facts, performance data, budgets, or approvals that were not provided or clearly inferred from evidence.
• Do not skip required inputs, mandatory sections, or quality checks just to make the output shorter.
• Do not drift into out-of-scope work such as code implementation, design production, or unsupported legal conclusions.

Outputs

• A structured onboarding, strategy, or planning document in markdown, ready to hand off to the next skill in the workflow.

References

• Use the inline instructions in this skill now. If a references/ directory is added later, treat its files as the deeper source material and keep this SKILL.md execution-focused.

Required Input

No prior client data is required to start. This skill generates the intake questions first, then works from the answers captured in Phase 1 and Phase 2.

Phase 1 — The 10 Standard Questions

Present these questions exactly as written. They are suitable for a website intake form, a discovery call, or a document sent to the client. Each question owns a specific domain; together they cover all information needed for a complete client brief.

Do not reorder, split, or merge the questions. The client answers in their own words — free-form, open-ended.

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Question 1 — Business Overview Tell us about your business: what you do, what you sell or offer, how long you have been operating, how big your team is, and where you are based.

Question 2 — Unique Value Proposition What makes your business different from your competitors? Why should a customer choose you over anyone else in your market?

Question 3 — Target Audience Describe your ideal customer as a real person. Include their age range, gender (if relevant), location, income level or economic segment, occupation, and the specific problem your business solves for them. If you serve more than one type of customer, describe each.

Question 4 — Social Media Goals What do you want social media to achieve for your business? What has prompted you to focus on this now, and what does success look like for you over the next 6–12 months?

Question 5 — Current Social Media Presence Which platforms are you currently active on? For each one, tell us your handle, roughly how many followers you have, how often you post, and who manages the account today. How would you honestly rate your current performance — and what has worked or not worked so far?

Question 6 — Competitors Name your top three to five competitors. For each, tell us which platforms they are on and what their social media presence looks like. Which competitor do you most admire and why — and which do you most want to be clearly different from?

Question 7 — Brand Voice and Personality If your brand were a person walking into a room, how would they speak, dress, and carry themselves? Choose three words that describe how your brand should sound on social media. Name two or three brands — anywhere in the world — whose tone you admire, and two or three you absolutely do not want to sound like.

Question 8 — Visual Identity Describe your visual brand: your colours (with hex codes if you have them), your fonts, and your logo status. Do you have existing brand guidelines? What overall look and feel do you want your social media content to have — and are there any visual styles you want to avoid?

Question 9 — Resources, Budget, and Approval What content resources do you have available — photography, video capability, someone willing to appear on camera, a team member who writes well? What is your monthly budget for social media management and/or paid advertising? Who must approve content before it is published, and how quickly can they turn approvals around?

Question 10 — Posting Expectations, Restrictions, and Reporting Which platforms do you want to prioritise, and how often do you expect content to be posted? Are there any topics, words, or approaches your brand should never use? How often would you like performance reports, and in what format? Is there anything else — upcoming launches, past challenges, sensitivities, regulated industry requirements — we should know before we begin?

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Phase 1 Output — Draft Client Brief

Once the 10 answers are received, generate the draft client brief immediately. Do not ask for clarification before generating — gaps and ambiguities are addressed in Phase 2.

Structure the brief using the 12 sections below. Write in full sentences where appropriate; use tables for structured data. Where an answer is missing or vague, note it clearly with the marker [TO CONFIRM] so it is visible for follow-up.

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1. Business Overview

Name, industry/sector, founding year (or approximate age), team size, location(s), and a one-paragraph summary of what the business does and who it serves.

2. Target Audience

Primary audience profile: age range, gender (if stated), location, income/economic segment, occupation, and the core problem the business solves. Note secondary audiences if mentioned. State whether the business is B2C, B2B, or both.

3. Social Media Presence

Reproduce the platform data as a table. Add a one-line consultant commentary on each active platform.

Platform	Handle	Followers	Posting frequency	Manager	Consultant note

Below the table: summarise what has worked and what has not, as stated by the client.

4. Competitors

Named competitors in a table with their platform handles and a brief note on the client's view of each. Highlight the one the client most admires and the one they want to differentiate from.

Competitor	Platforms / handle	Client's view

5. Content Goals

Primary goal in bold. All secondary goals listed. Note the trigger — why the client is acting now.

6. Tone of Voice

Three brand adjectives. Admired brands and what the client likes about each. Brands to avoid and why.

7. Brand Guidelines

Colours (hex codes or description), fonts, logo status, brand guidelines status, visual style direction, and any visual restrictions.

8. Posting Frequency and Expectations

Client's stated expectations per platform. Flag any that are unrealistic against Uganda/EA norms:

• Facebook: 4–5 posts per week
• Instagram: 3–4 posts per week
• LinkedIn: 2–3 posts per week
• TikTok: 3–5 short videos per week
• WhatsApp: 1–2 broadcast messages per week

9. Budget and Resources

Budget band stated by client. Content resources available (photography, video, on-camera talent, writers). Note what is missing.

10. Approval Workflow

Approver name and role. Turnaround time. Approval method (email, shared drive, tool). Multiple approval stages if mentioned.

11. Content Restrictions

Topics to avoid. Competitor mention policy. Regulated industry requirements and disclaimers. Past incidents or sensitivities.

12. Reporting Preferences

Frequency, format, recipients, and priority metrics as stated. Note anything vague with [TO CONFIRM].

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Phase 2 — Follow-Up Questions

Immediately after the draft brief, generate 5–7 targeted follow-up questions. These are not standard questions — they are generated fresh based on this specific client's answers.

How to generate them:

Review the draft brief against the 12 sections. For each [TO CONFIRM] marker and for every section where the answer is thin, contradictory, or strategically important but unclear, draft one precise question. Prioritise:

1. Anything that would change the strategic direction if answered differently
2. Missing data that blocks the 02-platform-audit, 03-audience-personas, or 05-social-media-strategy skills from running
3. Contradictions between answers (e.g. a "premium brand" with a very low paid budget)
4. Vague goals that need a specific, measurable target
5. Unclear approval or reporting expectations that will cause friction in the retainer

Cap at 7 questions. If fewer than 5 gaps exist, generate only as many as needed — do not pad.

Format each follow-up question as:

[Domain] — [Question number of 5–7] [The question, written directly to the client in plain language.] Why we are asking: [One sentence explaining what this unlocks for the strategy or workflow.]

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After Phase 2 Answers Are Received

Update the draft client brief with the follow-up answers. Replace all [TO CONFIRM] markers. The finalised brief is ready for handoff to:

• 02-platform-audit — if a platform audit is needed
• 03-audience-personas — to build audience persona documents
• 04-brand-voice-intake — to develop the full brand voice guide
• 05-social-media-strategy — to begin strategy development

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Quality Criteria

• All 12 sections of the client brief are populated or clearly marked [TO CONFIRM] — no section is silently skipped
• The draft brief is generated from the 10 answers without requesting further information first; gaps are handled in Phase 2
• Follow-up questions are specific to this client — none could be copy-pasted to a different client without rewriting
• Each follow-up question states why it is being asked, so the client understands its purpose
• Posting frequency recommendations are grounded in Uganda/EA platform norms, not generic global benchmarks
• Contradictions between answers are surfaced and resolved in Phase 2, not ignored
• The finalised brief after Phase 2 is complete enough for any downstream skill to run without needing to return to the client for basic information
• British English spelling throughout; tone follows the east-african-english skill