Teach AI Who You Are

Profile profile.md portable context about you

• Field 01 Context Role Designer, DS lead, educator, founder
• Field 02 Context Taste Visual styles you prefer and avoid
• Field 03 Context Tools Figma, Cursor, Storybook, Claude
• Field 04 Context Voice Tone, words you use, words you ban
• Field 05 Context Boundaries What AI should never decide for you

Why AI needs your profile

AI tools do not know who you are.

They do not know whether you are a product designer, design system lead, founder, researcher, or educator. They do not know whether you like quiet editorial interfaces or loud startup gradients. They do not know that you hate vague strategy decks, prefer practical examples, or work mostly in Figma and Cursor.

So they average you out.

A personal profile file fixes that. It gives AI reusable context about you before each task.

Project context vs personal context

There are three kinds of context worth separating.

Personal profile

This describes you.

Use it for:

• your role
• taste
• writing voice
• preferred tools
• decision style
• recurring workflows
• things AI should avoid when helping you

Project context

This describes the work.

Use CLAUDE.md, project docs, design-system files, and local rules for:

• stack
• tokens
• components
• commands
• folder structure
• team conventions

Customer context

This describes the audience.

Use research folders for:

• customer language
• pain points
• objections
• jobs to be done
• buying triggers

Do not merge all three into one mega-file. AI works better when the layers are clear.

Create profile.md

Make a file called:

profile.md

Save it somewhere you can find again. An Obsidian vault, notes folder, or private repo is fine.

Start with this structure:

# Personal AI Profile

## Who I am
- Role:
- Work context:
- Audience I usually design for:
- Current priorities:

## How I work
- Preferred tools:
- Design process:
- Things I like AI to help with:
- Things I want to decide myself:

## Taste and standards
- Visual styles I like:
- Visual styles I avoid:
- UX principles I care about:
- Accessibility standards:

## Writing voice
- Tone:
- Words I use:
- Words I avoid:
- Good example:
- Bad example:

## AI collaboration rules
- Ask before:
- Never do:
- Prefer:
- When unsure:

## Repeated workflows
- Pattern 1:
- Pattern 2:
- Pattern 3:

This file should be specific enough to help, but short enough that you actually reuse it.

Aim for 500 to 900 words.

Fill it with useful details

Good profile context sounds like this:

I am a product designer focused on design systems, AI workflows, and design education. I prefer practical, direct guidance over abstract theory. When helping me write guides, use plain language, concrete examples, and a strong point of view. Avoid corporate phrases like "unlock," "streamline," and "leverage."

Weak profile context sounds like this:

I am a creative designer who likes good UX and clean design.

The weak version is true but not useful. The strong version changes the output.

Add taste constraints

Taste is hard for AI unless you name it.

Write your preferences in opposites:

Prefer:
- editorial layouts with clear type hierarchy
- warm neutral palettes
- practical examples over inspirational language
- components that feel calm, precise, and intentional

Avoid:
- generic SaaS gradients
- purple-blue AI styling
- vague "future of work" copy
- fake dashboard metrics
- decorative sections that do not help the user decide

This gives AI a target and a boundary.

Add collaboration rules

Your profile should tell AI how to behave.

Examples:

Ask before making broad structural changes.
Do not invent components, token names, or package names.
When reviewing, lead with risks and issues before praise.
When writing, prefer short paragraphs and direct examples.
When coding, follow existing project patterns before introducing new abstractions.

These rules are not personality decoration. They prevent predictable mistakes.

Use the profile in a prompt

When you start a new chat or workflow, paste the profile first and say:

Read this as my personal AI profile. Use it as context for the rest of this conversation. Do not summarize it. Just confirm you understand the working style, taste constraints, and collaboration rules.

[paste profile.md]

Then ask for the actual task.

For Claude Code or Cursor, you can keep the file in your workspace and say:

Read profile.md first. Then help me plan this design-system audit using my working style and standards.

Keep private data out

Do not include:

• passwords
• API keys
• private client details
• internal politics
• personal health information
• anything you would not paste into an AI chat

Useful context does not need to be sensitive.

Review it monthly

Your profile will get better as AI disappoints you.

When output annoys you, ask:

• Was a preference missing?
• Was a boundary missing?
• Did I fail to give an example?
• Did the profile describe who I was six months ago?

Add one line. Keep going.

Exercise

Write your first personal AI profile

25 min

1. Draft profile.md from the template

   Copy the template from this guide into a new file called profile.md. Fill every section with concrete details. If a section feels hard, write one honest sentence instead of leaving it blank.

   • The file says what kind of designer you are
   • It names tools and workflows you actually use
   • It includes at least five “avoid” rules
   • It includes one example of your preferred writing or design style

2. Test the profile against one task

   Start a new AI chat. Paste the profile. Then ask for a task you have asked before: critique a screen, improve a prompt, write a component guideline, or outline a guide. Compare the new answer to what you normally get.

   • The answer reflects at least one taste preference from your profile
   • The answer avoids something you explicitly said to avoid
   • You can point to one sentence that is more “you” than the default AI answer