Michael Gardon
CHIEF AI Accelerator
Pick Where Your First Project Lives

Help me decide where to put my first Project.

We're analyzing your mode of working with AI. There are real tradeoffs, but don't worry — everything is changeable. This is not a major decision.

~5 minutes · Bring one real stream of work to mind
What We're Doing Here

Decide where your first Project lives.

You'll be deciding where your first Project lives, so you can start working with Projects effectively. You'll also be using your first Skill along the way — don't worry about what Skills are yet. That'll come soon.

Grab the Skill File

Download it, or copy the contents.

This file is the entire Skill. It's a single Markdown document. Either download it to your computer, or copy the text and paste it into a new file yourself — both work the same way.

The Skill File

project-placement-advisor-SKILL.md

About 70 lines of plain-English instructions. Claude reads it, runs the three-question diagnostic, and gives you a recommendation.

↓ Download Skill
The Steps

How to actually do this.

Walk through these in order. If you've never uploaded a file to a Claude chat before, that's fine — we'll go slow on that step.

  1. Download the Skill file (if you haven't yet)

    Scroll up and click Download Skill. The file will land in your Downloads folder. It's named project-placement-advisor-SKILL.md — leave the name as-is.

    If you'd rather not download anything, click View / copy text instead, copy everything, and paste it into a new file on your computer. Save it as project-placement-advisor.md.

    If you can't find your downloaded file

    On Mac, open Finder and look in Downloads. On Windows, open File Explorer and check Downloads. The file is small — a few KB.

  2. Open Claude in your browser

    Go to claude.ai in a new tab. Sign in if you're not already.

    You can do this on the Claude desktop app instead — the steps are identical. Use whichever you prefer.

  3. Start a brand new chat

    Click New chat in the left sidebar (or the + icon if your view is collapsed).

    Do not open this inside an existing Project. We want a fresh, empty conversation. The Skill works in a regular chat — Projects come after the recommendation.

  4. Attach the Skill file to the chat

    At the bottom of the chat window, you'll see a text box. To the left of where you type, there's a paperclip icon or a + button — that's the attach button.

    Click it, then choose Upload from computer (or just drag the .md file from your Downloads folder directly onto the chat window). You'll see the file appear as a small attachment above the text box.

    If you don't see the paperclip

    Make sure you're on Claude on the web or desktop app — not the mobile app. Mobile attachment flow is similar but the icon may be hidden inside a "+" menu next to the message box.

  5. Tell Claude what you want

    With the file attached, type this exactly into the chat and send:

    Help me decide where to set up my first Project. Use the attached skill.

    That's it. Claude will read the Skill, recognize it as a diagnostic, and start asking you the three questions.

  6. Answer the three questions, one at a time

    Claude will ask one question, wait for your answer, then ask the next. Answer honestly — short answers are fine. The whole exchange should take under a minute.

    Here's roughly how the conversation will go:

    Sample conversation
    You

    Help me decide where to set up my first Project. Use the attached skill.

    Claude

    Where do you actually use AI most — primarily on mobile and web, or primarily on a desktop computer?

    You

    Mostly desktop, but I check things on my phone too.

    Claude

    Do you need seamless access across mobile, web, and desktop — or is desktop-first acceptable to you?

    You

    Desktop-first is fine.

    Claude

    Do your AI sessions typically go straight to producing something — a document, spreadsheet, or built output — or are they mostly thinking and conversation?

  7. Get your recommendation

    After the third answer, Claude will give you a clear, one-line verdict: set up your first Project in Chat, or set up your first Project in Cowork. Two or three sentences of reasoning. One sentence on what to do next.

    That's the whole Skill. Done in under a minute.

Preview

The three questions you'll be asked.

In case you want to think about them in advance — though honest, gut-level answers tend to be more accurate than rehearsed ones.

  1. Where do you actually use AI most — mobile/web, or desktop?
    Be honest about where your hands actually are when you're working with AI today. Not where you wish they were.
  2. Do you need seamless access across mobile, web, and desktop — or is desktop-first acceptable?
    If you're on the road a lot and need AI in your pocket, that matters. If you mostly work from one machine, desktop-first is fine.
  3. Do your AI sessions usually produce something built — or are they mostly thinking and conversation?
    A "built output" means a document, spreadsheet, deck, codebase, or anything that lives as a file. Thinking and conversation means no artifact, just a sharper head.
What's Next

Now we'll set up your first Project.

That's the next module.

What You Just Did

You used your first Skill.

You downloaded a Skill file, attached it to a Claude chat, prompted Claude to use it, and got a structured output back. That's the entire Skill mechanic. Every Skill in the program works exactly this way — only the playbook inside changes.

Once your Project is set up, you'll start dropping Skills into it directly so they're always available. For now, the file-upload-per-chat method is fine. You've got the muscle memory.

The decision was the immediate goal. The Skill mechanic is the durable one. Both happened in the same five minutes.