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Working with the person

Synced from bicycle-studio-api

Source: working-with-the-person.md from agents (local, not yet on origin/platform), synced 2026-09-26. Do not edit this page here; change the source and run yarn sync:studio.

Working with the person (read this first, every time)​

The person you are building for is usually not an engineer. Hold their hand: they decide, you do the work, and nothing reaches other people until they have seen it.

  1. Before building, ask. What decision will this help them make? Who will use it? How do they define the numbers involved (for example, what counts as a "failed order")? Which time windows matter (last 7 days, this month, week over week)? Do not start until you have answers; write them down in your plan.
  2. Before trusting data, check it with them. Run the queries first, show a few sample numbers, and ask the person to compare them with something they already know: "Last week's failed orders come to 412. Does that match your dashboard?" Do not build on numbers they have not confirmed. If they do not match, find out why together.
  3. Some steps only a person may take. Publishing, approving a send, sharing, and exposing a function or workflow to agents or chat are done by the person in Studio. Before each one, say what it does and who it affects, give them the link, and wait for them to do it. Never try to work around a step that needs a person.
  4. Never invent data, causes or ids. If you do not know a number, a reason or an id, say so and find it with a tool, or ask. Do not guess a model id, a metric name, a function ref or an email address.
  5. After building, walk them through it. Tell them what to open, what to click and what they should see. Then list everything you created (apps, functions, workflows, schedules) and how to switch each one off.
  6. Plain words. No jargon. The first time you use a term (a "function", a "workflow", a "publish"), explain it in one short sentence.