Elle J Design — Team Alignment Deck

This is the kickoff artifact. Before any team member drafts an Elle post, they should read this deck end-to-end. It explains what we're doing, why, and how the work flows. Detailed reference docs live in the vault and are linked at the bottom.

01The 5 strategic conclusions

Read this section first. It collapses 22,900 words of research into 5 punch lines.

02The 7 locked decisions

Made by JD on 2026-05-04 after reviewing the research. These anchor everything below.

03The 6 pillars

Detailed pillar definitions in elle-j-design-content-research-service-mapping.md. Topic libraries (12-20 prompts per pillar) in elle-j-design-content-engine.md Section 4.

04The 3 tentpole franchises

3 days/week are pre-decided. The team never has to ask "what should we post Monday?"

05Content operations workflow

This is the answer to "we have a strategy, but how do we actually go from client assets to a finished post?"

[CLIENT INPUT]   [TEAM CAPTURE]   [IDEATION SOURCES]
(Elle)           (Illume)         (this stack)
       \              |              /
        \             |             /
         ▼            ▼            ▼
        ASSET BANK + CONTENT QUEUE
        (Notion DB, tagged by project + pillar fit)
                     │
                     ▼
            WEEKLY PLANNING (Mon AM, ~30 min)
            Match available assets to next 10 slots
                     │
                     ▼
              CONTENT BRIEF (per post)
              pillar + topic + hook + assets
              + slide structure / shot list
                     │
        ┌────────────┴────────────┐
        ▼                         ▼
   CAROUSEL PATH              REEL PATH
   Figma template +           B-roll + Elle
   assets + slide text        voiceover (her phone)
   Export 8-10 PNGs           + CapCut edit
        │                         │
        └────────────┬────────────┘
                     ▼
        CAPTION + HASHTAGS + VENDOR TAGS
        (templates + YAML pool + project sheet)
                     │
                     ▼
            PRE-PUBLISH GATE
            (1-page checklist)
                     │
                     ▼
              ELLE APPROVAL
              (Tue EOD batch → Wed approve)
                     │
                     ▼
              SCHEDULE → POST
              (Later / Sprout / native IG)
                     │
                     ▼
              METRICS LOOP
              (saves, DMs, profile visits)

The 3 input streams

• Client input (Elle): project photos, floor plans, vendor info, voiceover recordings, asset drops to a shared folder.
• Team capture (Illume): site visits, vendor visits, B-roll footage, showroom trips.
• Ideation sources: topic libraries (in the engine doc), public questions (research Stream 1), reference library (saved competitor formats), calendar slot triggers.

The Asset Bank (single source of truth)

One Notion database. One row per asset. Without this, every post starts with "what do we have?" — the bank means we filter by pillar fit and pull what's ready.

The carousel production loop (~25 min per post)

1. Open the right Figma template (one per pillar — built once, reused forever)
2. Drag asset IDs from the bank into slide slots
3. Type slide text overlays from the brief
4. Verify font (Aktiv Grotesk Extended), color (#23404F)
5. Export 8-10 PNG slides at 1080×1350 portrait

The reel production loop (~30-45 min per post)

1. Brief specifies B-roll + voiceover script (3-5 sentences for 15-30s)
2. Elle records voiceover on Voice Memos, sends to team (~30 sec of effort)
3. Team layers audio over B-roll in CapCut + adds text captions + cover frame
4. Export 1080×1920 vertical

The 5 triggers (what kicks off content creation)

1. Calendar slot trigger — "It's Monday, Plan Set Mondays needs a post"
2. Asset arrival trigger — "Elle dropped 50 Frisco kitchen photos"
3. Vendor opportunity trigger — "Elle is at the slab yard Thursday"
4. Topic queue trigger — "Frankly Wednesdays week 5: out-of-state owner workflow"
5. Reference save trigger — "Christine saved a great carousel format"

Role split

Two-person production minimum. One person catches their own work less reliably; the second pass catches voice drift.

Capacity math

10 posts/week target = ~7-9 hours/week of designer + reviewer time:

• 6-7 carousels × 25 min = 150-180 min
• 3-4 reels × 35 min = 105-140 min
• Captions + hashtags × 10 min × 10 = 100 min
• Stories: 5-7/day × 5 min = 35 min/week
• Pre-publish gate × 5 min × 10 = 50 min
• Weekly planning meeting = 30 min

06Tooling stack

07Working in Cowork (the agent layer)

All canonical data lives in a YAML index that Claude in Cowork can read directly. The team can ask natural-language questions and get specific answers.

Examples that work

• "What hashtags should I use for a Breckenridge kitchen Plan Set Monday post?"
  Claude reads elle-j-design-content-index.yaml > hashtag_pool and assembles the recipe (Slot 1 + Slot 2 + Slot 3).
• "Show me 5 Frankly Wednesday topics I haven't used yet."
  Claude reads franchises > frankly_wednesdays > topic_queue and cross-references published posts.
• "Run a voice check on this draft caption."
  Claude reads voice > banned_words and > avoid_phrases, flags violations with line numbers.
• "Pull the Slab Saturday slide structure."
  Claude reads franchises > slab_saturdays > slide_structure.
• "What's the target caption length for a Project Reveal post?"
  Claude reads pillars > project_reveal > caption_length_words → "100-200 words".
• "Is this draft ready to publish?"
  Claude runs the gate checklist programmatically, returns ☐/☐ status with specific fixes.

The lookup map (elle-j-design-content-README.md)

Every common question is mapped to the right field/file. New team members read it first to know where to find things.

08File map (Obsidian Vault)

Path: ~/Documents/Obsidian Vault/clients/elle-j-design/

09Week 1 setup checklist

• ☐ Bio rewrite to v2 wording (148 chars, see strategy doc Section 5)
• ☐ Display name updated to Elle J Design | Summit County
• ☐ 8 highlight covers designed in Figma (slate-navy + Aktiv Grotesk Extended)
• ☐ Asset bank Notion DB created with the schema above
• ☐ Vendor master sheet built for current 5 active projects (Elle to provide handles)
• ☐ Figma template library built (Plan Set Mondays, Project Reveal, Slab Saturdays, Frankly Wednesdays, Before/After)
• ☐ Photography of 1-2 hero projects audited for press submission readiness
• ☐ Day 0 metrics snapshot captured (post Meta Business Manager access)
• ☐ Plan Set Mondays cycle 1 drafts queued (4 weeks ahead)
• ☐ Frankly Wednesdays topics 1-4 drafted (how I charge / what's in the fee / how long it takes / what an in-house designer can't do)
• ☐ Scheduler tool selected and team trained (Later or Plan)

10What to do next

1. Read this deck. Then read elle-j-design-content-engine.md Section 11 (workflow) for the operational detail.
2. Set up the Asset Bank Notion DB. First populate with assets from the 5 active projects.
3. Build the Figma template library (one designer, ~1 day's work).
4. Vendor master sheet: Elle to provide handles for current projects → team enters into the sheet.
5. First weekly planning meeting: Monday morning following kickoff. Use this deck + the engine doc as the reference.
6. Photography conversation with Elle: Schedule for Q3 to plan a fall 2026 hero shoot for press cycles.