Guided Feature Builds for Nontechnical Teammates
Turn a feature idea into one reviewed phase at a time, with plain-language guidance and strict production safeguards.
Before & after
Same prompt, same agent — the only difference is the skill.
That's ambitious if you're not a developer, but it depends on how technical the feature is. You'd probably need someone technical to help with the architecture and database stuff. You might be able to handle the specifications and planning part, and then a developer could build it. It's hard to predict how long it will take without knowing the scope. What kind of feature are you thinking about? Is it part of your existing product or something new?
FEATURE BUILD WORKFLOW (non-technical co-founder → real code) PHASE 1: ONBOARDING (You + Skill) → Skill asks: What does this feature do? Who uses it? Success metric? → Skill captures your answers and your team's current tech stack → Skill builds a feature brief (written, CTO-readable) PHASE 2: GRILLING (You + Skill) → Skill asks 20 targeted questions: edge cases, error handling, data relationships → Example: "If a user deletes their account, what happens to their saved settings?" → You answer or say "not sure"; skill flags unclear items for CTO review later PHASE 3: PHASED PLAN (You + Skill) → Skill writes a 4-week plan broken into weekly PRs (never combine phases) → PR 1: Database schema + API endpoints (backend foundation) → PR 2: Frontend UI (connected to PR 1 APIs) → PR 3: Edge cases + validation logic → PR 4: Testing + documentation → Architectural questions left as "TBD (CTO review)" in the doc PHASE 4: PHASED IMPLEMENTATION (You + Skill, CTO spot-check) → Skill generates Week 1 code ready to push → You (or intern) submit PR 1; CTO reviews only the TBD items → CTO approves in 1 hour, work continues → Skill generates Weeks 2–4 sequentially (never give you everything at once) HARD GUARDRAILS (built-in) → Read-only access to production database (cannot run destructive migrations) → Skill refuses to combine multiple PRs into one (blocks your request) → All architectural questions flagged automatically (CTO unblocks, not you) → No feature ships without CTO sign-off on the TBD questions RESULT: 4-week feature, 2 CTO hours (not 40), you own the execution
About this skill
You know what the app should do, but you do not know which questions matter or whether an AI-generated change is safe. This workflow turns your idea into small, reviewable feature phases, explains how to check each one, and sends architectural decisions to a technical lead before they become hidden assumptions in code.
What it does
- Checks the development environment and identifies a safe local or test path before changing code.
- Turns a vague request into observable behavior, acceptance checks, and explicit exclusions.
- Separates product choices you can answer from architectural decisions that need a technical lead.
- Plans phases that each produce a demonstrable result, with exactly one phase per PR.
- Implements one approved phase, checks its acceptance criteria, and stops for approval before starting another.
- Keeps production access read-only and distinguishes proposed changes, verified behavior, and release status.
What you get
A plain-language feature brief, a phased plan with unresolved decisions clearly marked, and one approved phase implemented at a time. Each implementation handoff includes a reviewer summary, verification evidence, a manual walkthrough, and the next approval needed.
Best for
Nontechnical founders, interns, and teammates contributing to an existing application with a technical reviewer available. Also useful for technical leads who want contributors to make steady progress without guessing about architecture or touching production.
SKILL.md preview
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name: guided-feature-builds-for-nontechnical-teammates
description: Guides nontechnical teammates from feature discovery through environment checks, technical-lead escalation, a phased plan, and one approved implementation at a time. Uses observable acceptance checks, one phase per PR, and read-only production access. Use when the user says "help me build this feature", "I have an idea but don't know where to start", "walk me through coding this", "I don't know which technical questions to answer", "the AI keeps changing too much at once", "I'm scared this will break production", or "help our intern ship a feature safely".
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# Guided Feature Builds for Nontechnical Teammates
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