12:00 · Agent · design the helper

Design the helper

Feed in the sharp pain. Diverge across ways AI could help, then converge on one design.

Three steps

01Explore three ways AI could help: a conversation, an agent, a workflow.
02Compare them honestly on usefulness, effort and risk.
03Converge on one design: job, inputs, output, boundary, human check.

Compare before you commit

A conversation
you run it
A reusable prompt you paste when the pain shows up. Cheapest, most fragile.
An agent
runs on request
A named helper with its own instructions and grounding. Repeatable, needs a boundary.
A workflow
runs on a trigger
It fires without you. Highest leverage, highest need for evidence and a human check.

Score each one out loud: usefulness · effort to set up · risk

The prompt

Here is my pain card. Give me three different ways AI could help: (1) a conversation I run myself, (2) an agent that runs on request, (3) a workflow that runs on a trigger. For each, state usefulness, effort to set up and risk. Then recommend one and write it as job, inputs, output, boundary and human check. Do not build it yet.

Need a nudge?

What does good look like?
What must it never decide?
What evidence must it show?

Agent card

Five lines. Stays in this browser — nothing here is sent anywhere.

Job

Inputs

Output

Boundary

Human check

Is this helper design worth building?

0 answersconnecting…

The helper we designed…

Optional. Keep it non-sensitive — no customer names, no confidential detail. Nothing appears publicly until JJ approves it.

A design you can hand over beats a chat you cannot repeat.