AI Product · Compass AI in product
Prompt Coach: designing the human side of AI
A 72-hour hackathon build that took a cross-functional team of six from concept to production-ready, won the #MoveFast Award at the 2023 Compass Hackathon, and shipped as part of Compass AI, where agents use it today.
Compass AI today: Prompt Coach's topic-first approach, live in production.
The problem
Real estate agents needed personalized, platform-ready marketing copy, and generic AI output wasn't cutting it. Before Prompt Coach, agents either avoided AI entirely or pasted generic requests into Compass AI, our own AI embedded in the platform, and got copy that sounded nothing like them. The missing piece wasn't the AI, it was the UX layer that helped users give the AI what it needed.
Discovery: straight to the agents
One of our six was an Agent Experience Manager out of the Compass Malibu office. She connected us with agents who walked us through their frustrations firsthand: generic output, copy that didn't sound like them, prompts they didn't know how to write. Those conversations shaped the concept, and we tested the tool with the same agents before submitting.
Solution: the interface does the prompting
Prompt Coach guided agents through a structured workflow, auto-populating MLS listing data and capturing tone, audience, and brand voice upfront. By the time the AI generated copy, it sounded like the agent, not a template. The user never had to learn prompting, the interface did that work invisibly.
The interface does the prompting: a simple 4-step guided form for the agent, a fully structured, personalized prompt for the AI, invisibly assembled underneath.
Listing Description — Prompt Coach, live in production as Compass AI: four guided topics, each pre-loaded with the context the model needs to sound like the agent, not a template.
See it in action
The hackathon prototype: the guided flow agents step through, from choosing a listing type to landing on personalized, on-voice marketing copy.
Interactive, click through the prototype above.
The team: 72 hours, six people, one shipped feature
I led UX and UI across a cross-functional team of six, including the Agent Experience Manager and front-end and back-end engineers, taking the concept to production-ready in 72 hours.
Outcome
Prompt Coach won the #MoveFast Award at the 2023 Compass Hackathon and shipped to production, where agents use it as part of Compass AI. The hackathon proved the idea viable and shippable, the product team carried it forward from there.
The #MoveFast Award, 2023 Compass Hackathon, with the six-person team behind Prompt Coach.
What I'd take from this
Prompt Coach taught me where the real design problem in AI lives. It isn't making the model smarter; it's helping humans express intent. Agents knew exactly what they wanted, they just had no way to say it to a machine. That translation is a UX problem, and it's the lens I've brought to every AI project since.
What I'd do differently: stay closer to the feature after handoff. The 72-hour sprint was the headline, but the learning I gave up was in the long tail of how agents actually used it.