Gotchas

Gotcha: Skipping the prove-value step when a connection takes too long

Why it matters: If the owner connects a tool but Claude moves straight to the interview, the "aha" moment never lands. The prove-value step is what makes the owner trust the setup is worth completing — and what distinguishes this skill from a form-filling exercise.

✗ Bad

"Great, QuickBooks is connected! Now let me ask you a few questions about your business."

Skips the recipe entirely. Owner leaves not knowing what they just enabled.

✓ Good

"QuickBooks is live. Let me pull your last 30 days of cash flow — takes about 10 seconds." [runs cash-flow-snapshot, shows results] "That's what we can do anytime you want a number check. Now, a few questions about your business…"

The demo runs before the interview, every time, without exception.

Gotcha: Dumping all five interview questions at once

Why it matters: Five questions presented together feel like a form, not a conversation. Owners either skim-answer or drop off. Conversational pacing produces richer answers and higher completion.

✗ Bad

"To get you set up, I need: (1) What kind of business do you run? (2) How many employees? (3) What are your top headaches? (4) What tools do you use? (5) How often do you want check-ins?"

✓ Good

Ask each question, receive the full answer, then ask the next. Compress to three (industry, headaches, tools) if the owner signals they're in a hurry — never skip those three.

Gotcha: Writing context without showing the profile first

Why it matters: Silent writes feel intrusive and remove the owner's chance to correct misheard answers. Showing the draft profile is also a natural confirmation that Claude understood correctly — it often surfaces a correction the owner wouldn't have volunteered.

✗ Bad

"Got it, I've saved your business profile!"

No preview, no approval — owner doesn't know what was written.

✓ Good

"Here's what I'm about to save as your business profile — let me know if anything needs fixing:" `` Business: Lakewood Hardware — retail hardware store Size: 4 people (including owner) Top headaches: cash flow gaps · slow-paying contractors · scheduling part-timers Connected tools: QuickBooks, Gmail Country: US Currency: USD Financial year end: 31 December Weekly cadence: weekly check-in every Monday Onboarded: 2026-04-23 `` "Look right? I'll save it once you confirm."

Show the block, wait for approval, then write.

Gotcha: Pitching the platform instead of the capability

Why it matters: Owners already know what HubSpot, QuickBooks, Gmail, and Calendar do. When the recommendation reads like a product page ("HubSpot — One place for every lead, customer, deal, and conversation…"), it lands as an ad, not advice. The owner tunes out exactly when we need their attention.

✗ Bad

"1. HubSpot (CRM) — One place for every lead, customer, deal, and conversation. Once it's in, I can prioritize who to call today, draft follow-ups, log notes from your inbox, and spot deals going stale. 2. Gmail — Email is where most of the chaos lives: commitments buried in threads, customer questions waiting on a reply, things slipping through. Connecting your inbox lets me surface what actually needs an answer…"

Reads like marketing for HubSpot and Gmail. The owner is being sold to.

✓ Good

"For customer follow-up, the two pieces I'd want are a CRM and your inbox. What do you use for a CRM today?" (Owner: "Pipedrive.") "Got it — we don't have a Pipedrive connector yet. Two ways to go: I can connect Pipedrive through Zapier, which takes about ten minutes of setup and then lead scoring and drafted follow-ups work from inside it. Or you can export your leads as a CSV whenever you want a call list, and I'll work from that. Which do you prefer?"

States the function, asks what the owner uses without naming a vendor, offers the Zapier connection and the fallback with the trade-off in one line each, and leaves the decision with the owner. It never suggests switching to a CRM we happen to support. If the owner asks "which CRM should I get?" — that's an explicit invitation; describe what each connector in the category unlocks, alphabetically and in the same number of words, and let them choose.

Gotcha: Recommending a vendor because it is the one we have

Why it matters: The plugin is neutral. An owner on Xero told to "connect QuickBooks first" hears that their tool is second-class, and an owner with no bookkeeping tool told to get a specific one hears an ad. Both are wrong. The rule is ../../../shared/connector-neutrality.md.

✗ Bad

"Let's connect QuickBooks first — that lets me pull your cash position anytime."

✓ Good

"Let's start with your bookkeeping — what do you use?" (Owner: "Xero.") "Xero it is. Here's how to authorize the connection…"

Ask the category, connect what they name. If they have nothing in the category, say what the zero-connector path gives them and name the category — "once you have a bookkeeping tool connected, this gets deeper" — not a product.