“Without the aesthetic, the computer is but a mindless speed machine.”
A prospect sent over a homepage design a few days ago.
They took our proposal and dumped it into Claude. Wanted to know if we “could take a quick look and offer feedback.”
For those of you keeping score:
Weeks of back and forth negotiations and advice. Resulting in no need for us to do the work. Just a review of a robot’s work. By us. For free.
… … … … … 🫠
Needless to say, the conversation ended there. Didn’t even open the link.
***
If you’ve been in the consulting world for any length of time, you’ve lived some version(s) of this story.
You do the intro call. Share how you think and how you work. You give away enough of your strategy so the prospect can see how you’d solve their problem.
ANNNNDDD … the dreaded email shows up:
“After careful consideration, we decided to tackle this in-house. [ blah, blah, fake flattery and blame-shifting justification ] But would you mind reviewing what we came up with?”
They trust your judgment enough to want it. Just not enough to pay for it.
***
We had several previous conversations with this prospect, showing them exactly what we bring to the table. That part was done.
Reviewing that homepage would have just stamped our name on design decisions we never made.
Playing this whole thing out >>> If the design works, Claude gets the credit and validation. If it bombs, the first question leadership asks is, “but … didn’t you have a designer look at it first?”
And, let’s just be real. A “quick look” is never quick.
To say whether a design works, you have to know what it’s supposed to do. Who it’s for, the competitive landscape, historical data, what success looks like. Basically the entire strategy phase … which was already axed from the plan.
All together, it’s a game with no winning moves.
***
AI made the “doing” part stupid-fast now. It can produce whatever you tell it to in a hot-second.
Judging the output is the hard part, based on critical decisions that need to happen long before anything gets prompted.
Context first. Then what “better results” actually means and how you’ll measure it. Then the customer journey and visitor experience. Then a process for checks and reviews, measured against the criteria you established at the start.
Skip any part of that and you’ve got a new design with nothing to test against.
It could be great. It could be hemorrhaging visits and money the second it goes live. Who knows? You can’t grade a test without the answer key.
Claude sure doesn’t have it … but it’ll confidently tell you exactly what you want to hear at any given moment.
***
If you’re tempted to prompt your way to a new brand or website this fall, I get it. There’s no shortage of shiny objects.
Just make sure you get the order right, FIRST. Before you prompt anything, write down who it’s for and exactly what success looks like. Like, with actual data. Be specific. If you can’t fill in that page, trust me, the tools can’t either.
That email was relegated to our “Lost Prospects” archive, BTW. Unopened.
Feels like exactly the right place for it.
Your move → Get your custom answer key
***
Make it a great week! 🙌
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