Building a Simpler Personalized Framework

Shows how to create a custom 3-step framework (USER-BUILD-MEASURE) that replaces CIRCLES' 7 steps while maintaining full coverage. Includes a worked example and comparison table.

Input

What you provide to the skill

CIRCLES feels too long and unnatural for me. Can you help me build a simpler 3-step framework that matches my user-first thinking style? I want something I can actually internalize.

Output

What the skill generates for you

Your Personalized Framework: USER-BUILD-MEASURE

Based on your user-first thinking style, here’s a 3-step framework that replaces CIRCLES:

1. USER (= C + I + R from CIRCLES)

Who needs this?
What segment matters most?
What problems do they face?

Natural opening: “Let me think about the user here…”

2. BUILD (= C + L + E from CIRCLES)

What should we build?
What’s the V1?
What are we trading off?

Natural transition: “So what should we actually build?”

3. MEASURE (= S from CIRCLES)

How do we know it’s working?

Natural transition: “And how would we measure this?”

USER-BUILD-MEASURE in Action

Question: “Design a meditation app for beginners”

USER:
“Let me think about the user here. I’m picturing someone who’s never meditated before - maybe they’re stressed from work, curious about mindfulness, but intimidated by existing apps. They’ve downloaded Headspace once, saw a 30-day program, and immediately bounced.

So: complete beginners, skeptical about wellness stuff, need quick proof it works.”

BUILD:
“So what should we actually build? They need something approachable and low-commitment. No ‘find your chakra’ language that turns off skeptics.

For V1: 3-minute guided sessions (fits into any schedule), plain language (no Sanskrit), immediate feedback (‘Your heart rate dropped 8%’).

Trade-off: We’re sacrificing depth for accessibility - power users won’t find advanced techniques here, but that’s not our V1 audience anyway.”

MEASURE:
“And how would we measure this? Primary metric: D7 retention - did we get them past the intimidation phase? Secondary: session completion rate. Guardrail: time to first session under 3 minutes - if onboarding takes longer than the meditation itself, we’ve failed.”

Coverage Comparison

CIRCLES (7 steps)	USER-BUILD-MEASURE (3 steps)
Clarify	USER
Identify users	USER
Report needs	USER
Cut scope	BUILD
List solutions	BUILD
Evaluate trade-offs	BUILD
Summarize metrics	MEASURE

Same complete coverage, 3 steps instead of 7, natural language you’d actually use.

Why This Works Better For You

CIRCLES feels mechanical because:

7 steps = too many mental checkboxes
Letter mnemonics = you’re announcing “C is for Clarify”
Designed for completeness, not conversation

USER-BUILD-MEASURE feels natural because:

3 steps = easy to internalize
Plain words = matches how you actually think
Question format = conversational flow

The secret: You’re still covering everything CIRCLES covers. You’ve just reorganized it to match your user-first mental model.

Practice Exercise

Try answering this with your new framework: “Design a feature to help college students find part-time jobs”

Target delivery:

Start with “Let me think about the user here…” (not “First, I need to clarify”)
Transition with “So what should we actually build?” (not “Now moving to solutions”)
Finish with “And how would we measure this?” (not “Step 7: Summarize”)

Your framework is invisible to the interviewer - they just hear you thinking clearly about users, building solutions, and measuring outcomes.