Morning friend ☕️

Happy Women’s Day to all the women in South Africa! I hope you celebrated and got spoilt yesterday 💐 . And thanks for the bonus public holiday today :-)

We’re still on the Builder’s Workshop Series, the series for those who are excited about building with AI, but maybe feeling a bit overwhelmed right now. I’m using my experience with setting things up for my book as a guide.

This series is not technical though. (That guide is coming soon). Here, we look at the mindset shift and a simple structure behind starting (or optimizing) your own thing with the help of AI.

Over the last 3 weeks you got through the door and then saw the need for a bench on which to build, and then saw how your lived experience is stocking the shelves.

Welcome to Part 4 of The Builder's Workshop: The Crew.

Who is the crew?
What benefit do they bring?
How do you set them up?

Grab your coffee.

Let's chat!

Scary Management is still basically a one man show.

Just one person writing this blog.

There’s no staff. No office. No team waiting for me on Monday morning.

So when I say I built a crew to help me finish the book, it sounds much grander than it is.

The crew is seven text files in a folder.

Each file is a job description. It tells the AI what role it is playing, what it cares about, what it is allowed to do, and what it should push back on.

One looks after the story.

One checks continuity and canon.

One protects the reader experience.

One manages the knowledge behind everything.

There are others for the blog, future products, and a developmental editor who is deliberately kept outside the whole system.

All working on the same thing, but from different sides.

Why not just use one chat?

Because one chat is very helpful.

You ask it to help shape an idea. It helps.

Then you ask whether the idea is any good. It tells you it is promising.

Then you ask it to find the weaknesses. It gives you three sensible improvements, all of which leave the original idea safely intact.

I've done this plenty of times.

I already use Claude and Codex this way. I play them off against each other.

The same conversation that helped you build the thing is now being asked to stand on the other side of the room and attack it. But it already knows what you wanted. It has followed every turn. It has helped make the case.

And, like most of us after a long meeting, it would quite like to reach agreement and move on.

That is useful when you need momentum. Less so when you need someone to say, "This doesn't work."

That’s why I need the crew. The same chat that helped me build something is already too close to it. I need another role to come in cold and tell me where it breaks.

A crew gives the jobs separate loyalties.

The Story Office wants the book to work as a story.

The Canon Guardian checks that there are no contradictions as the story evolves.

The Reader Office checks how engaging the story is.

The Product Office looks at what the story might earn the right to become later.

Each of these crew members is just a clear set of instructions.

Once you get past the slightly ridiculous office names, all I've really done is decide what kind of thinking the work needs, and give each kind a proper role.

Here's what that looks like in practice.

Let's say I'm working on a chapter.

The story role might suggest a change because it improves the pressure or makes the character's choice clearer.

The continuity role can object because the change breaks something established earlier.

The reader role can look at both and say, honestly, neither version makes me care enough yet.

They put their view on the bench. I read the disagreement and decide what happens next.

That's my actual job in the workshop - to decide.

Thandi didn't become a leader alone either.

If you've been reading for a while, you'll know Thandi. The new leader at the heart of the novel I'm writing.

Earlier this year, I wrote about the four forces around her.

Anand brought the standard.

Lebo held up the mirror.

Werner brought the system.

Richard made the consequence visible.

They helped shape her because they did not all bring the same thing into the room.

If every voice around Thandi had wanted comfort, speed, or agreement, there wouldn't be much of a story. There wouldn't be much leadership either.

That's what makes the four of them useful. They pull her in different directions.

Your project probably needs a crew like that too.

So where does the crew fit?

The door got you into the workshop.

The bench gave the work somewhere to live between sessions.

The shelves gave the AI the context and judgment only you could provide.

Now the crew uses all of that from different angles.

The same files on the shelves.

The same work on the bench.

Different responsibilities when they pick it up.

If the shelves are empty, the roles are guessing. If there is no bench, their advice disappears into another chat.

And if one agreeable voice is building, checking, challenging, and approving the same piece of work, don't be surprised when it passes.

Your crew can start with two.

You do not need seven roles. I didn't start there, and most decisions don't need them.

Start with a builder and a sceptic.

The builder's job is to make the strongest honest case for the idea.

The sceptic's job is to find where it breaks, what you are assuming, and what it could cost if you are wrong.

If you're working on something more specific, add one person from the world the decision has to survive.

A customer who is tired and in a hurry.

A buyer with a limited budget.

A regulator who does not care how exciting the idea is.

Someone on your team who has watched the last three improvement projects quietly disappear.

For most of us, a face comes to mind fairly quickly.

One thing to try this week.

Take one real decision you're working through.

Open two fresh conversations.

Give both the same facts from your shelves.

Tell the first one: "You are the builder. Make the strongest honest case for this."

Tell the second: "You are the sceptic. Assume I may be talking myself into a bad decision. Show me where it breaks."

Do not ask either one to be balanced. That's your job when the answers come back.

Put both answers on the bench and look at where they disagree.

That gap is normally more useful than either answer on its own.

The takeaway

Don't ask one chat to build the idea and approve it too.

Split the jobs. Give both roles the same facts. Then use your own judgment on the disagreement.

My crew still misses things. Sometimes seven roles produce seven longer versions of roughly the same answer. Sometimes I disagree with all of them.

That's fine.

I still make the decisions. The crew just helps me see them properly.

Let me know how your experiments with building a crew go and if you get stuck. I’m putting together a detailed guide on how to set up your own workshop, and I’m keen to hear what you want in that guide.

Until next Monday, friend ☕️

Vaugan