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Bruno Ashford @brunoashfordSubscribeModule 5 · Lesson 5.2 · 14 min
Your First Skill in 15 Minutes
Build a working skill from a written process, test it once and save it in your Company folder.
Use ← → to move. The marker highlights text and the pencil draws on the slide; navigation locks while you annotate. Undo removes the last mark, Esc exits.
1Write the process the way you would explain it
Open a note and write the task as you would explain it to a new hire: when it happens, the steps, what good looks like, and what must never happen. Bullet points are fine. Five to fifteen lines is plenty.
2Ask Claude to turn it into a skill
Paste your notes and ask for a project skill. Tell it to write the description in the third person and to include both what the skill does and when to use it.
Turn the process below into a Claude Code project skill. Create .claude/skills/weekly-report/SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter (name and description). The description must say what the skill does and when to use it, in the third person. Keep the instructions clear, numbered and under 100 lines. Follow our CLAUDE.md voice and red lines.
PROCESS:
[paste your notes here]3Read it like a manager
Open the file and read it. Are the steps in the right order? Is anything missing that you do by instinct? Does it say what to do when data is missing? Edit the file directly or tell Claude what to change.
4Run it directly
Type a slash and the skill name to run it on purpose. This is the quickest first test. Give it a real input, like last week's figures.
/weekly-report using the file sales/2026-09-week-38.csv5Check that it also triggers on its own
Now ask in normal words without the slash. If Claude does not pick up the skill, the description does not match how people actually ask. Add the phrases your team really uses.
Can you put together this week's report from the latest sales file?Pick the task you have explained to people the most times. The one where you think "if I have to explain this again". That is your first skill. Do not pick the most complex process in the company. Pick the most repeated one.
You do not need to write the skill yourself. You describe the process, Claude writes the SKILL.md, you correct it, and you test it. Fifteen minutes, start to finish.
Key points
- Start with your most repeated task, not your most complex one.
- Describe the process. Let Claude write the SKILL.md.
- The description needs what it does and when to use it.
- Test directly with /skill-name, then in plain words.
- Edit the skill like you would edit a junior's SOP.
Avoid
- Starting with a huge, rarely used process.
- Accepting the first draft without reading it.
- A description that uses your jargon but not your team's everyday words.
- Forgetting to say what to do when an input is missing.
Tom's account managers each wrote Monday client updates in their own style, taking 30 to 45 minutes per client. Tom dictated his process into a note: wins first, numbers with last week's comparison, one risk, next three actions, under 200 words. Claude turned it into a skill in minutes. The team now produces a first draft per client in under five minutes and spends the saved time on the one insight that matters.