Handover interviewer: get the know-how out of one person’s head before they leave

When your longest-serving employee retires, or you go away for three weeks, the special prices, the supplier contacts and the unwritten rules go with them. The handover interviewer skill asks the questions one at a time and turns the answers into a handover document a colleague can work from.

What it does

• Interviews the person who knows the job, one short question per message, typed or dictated.
• Covers one area per interview: a role, a client, a supplier, a system or a recurring task.
• Works through seven topics in order: the rhythm (daily to yearly tasks), the people, the tools and access, the judgement calls, the history, the risks, and “what haven’t I asked?”.
• Digs deeper when it hears “usually”, “it depends” or “you just know”, with at most two follow-ups per point.
• Sums up what it has captured every 6 to 8 questions and asks if it’s right.
• Writes a handover document with nine sections: summary, calendar, people, tools and access, judgement calls, agreements and history, risks if nobody does this, open questions, and suggested SOPs.
• Marks everything said from memory or with doubt as [to check], so nobody mistakes a guess for a fact.
• Never asks for passwords. It uses roles and company names, and leaves out private phone numbers, health and salary details.
• Uses Swiss defaults: CHF with an apostrophe (1’250.00), dates like 06.10.2026, Swiss German spelling with “ss” and “Sie” unless you write with “du”.

It prepares drafts only. It never sends, publishes or saves anything outside the chat.

When to use it

• An employee is retiring, leaving or going on parental or long-term leave.
• You go on holiday and want someone else to look after your key customers.
• You plan a succession (Nachfolge) and the business runs on what you know.
• You can’t say what would happen if you were off for two weeks.
• You want to write SOPs but don’t know which jobs to start with.

The handover document ends with a list of jobs that deserve their own instruction. The SOP writer turns each one into a one-page step-by-step guide.

How to use it

Open a new chat in Claude or ChatGPT and say what you want to capture. For example:

I'm going on holiday for three weeks. Interview me about handling our two biggest wholesale customers. Sandra will look after them while I'm away.

Before it starts, the skill asks what you haven’t told it yet, one question at a time, each with a default: what area to capture, who will take over, any documents to start from (old notes, emails, a task list), and how much time you have (default: 30 minutes). Then it explains the rules: say “skip” to move on, “pause” to stop, or “done” when you want the document. Part of the finished document (illustrative):

HANDOVER: Wholesale customers A and B
Prepared with: Owner   Date: 09.10.2026   Status: Draft, to be checked

5. HOW TO HANDLE IT: JUDGEMENT CALLS
- If Customer A orders after Wednesday 12:00, then confirm Monday delivery, not Friday.

6. AGREEMENTS AND HISTORY
- Customer A pays within 60 days instead of 30. [to check]
- Customer B gets deliveries before 07:00 on Tuesdays.

8. OPEN QUESTIONS
- Does Customer B's 5% discount apply to the new product line? [to check] Ask: accounts.

At the end it suggests the next step: have the person taking over read the document and add their questions, then turn the items under “Suggested SOPs” into instructions, one at a time.

Short on time? Say “pause” after 15 minutes. Come back to the same chat later and carry on.

Tip: let the person taking over sit in, or send them the draft the same day. Their questions show the gaps faster than a second interview.

How to install it

1. Download the skill: handover-interviewer.zip. Don’t unzip it.
2. Upload it to your AI:
   • Claude: Customize > Skills, click +, then + Create skill, then Upload a skill, and choose the zip.
   • ChatGPT Business, Enterprise or Edu: Plugins, the Skills tab, Create, then Upload from your computer.
   • Gemini, Copilot, ChatGPT Free or Plus, or any other AI: open the zip, copy the text in SKILL.md and paste it into the instructions of a Project, Gem or Copilot agent.
3. Start a new chat and ask it to interview you about a job. If the AI ignores the skill, type / and pick it (Claude) or name it: “Use the handover interviewer skill to…”.

Every route, with screenshots: Install a BizzyAI skill.

Make it your own

The skill runs a structured interview. Your business decides which topics a good handover must cover. When it gets something wrong, ask the AI to change the skill itself so the next run is right.

1. Use it on a real handover. Start with the area that would hurt most if you were away for two weeks.

2. Say what you didn’t like, in plain words. For example:

   We call this an "Übergabeprotokoll". Always ask about open quotes and orders that are still running. Add a section for keys and alarm codes: where they are and who has them, never the codes themselves.

3. Add your business details. Paste your website link and one handover or job description you were happy with (names removed), then write:

   Add a short section to the skill about our business: what we do, our team roles, our main customer groups and suppliers, and the software we use. Only include what you can see. Ask me about anything missing.

4. Ask for the updated skill:

   Update the skill with these changes so it does this every time. Keep the name the same. Give me the complete updated skill as a zip file and list what you changed, one line each.

5. Save it and test again. Upload the new zip in place of the old one, or paste the new text over the old instructions. Start a new chat and interview the next person.

Good changes to ask for after a few rounds: your own section names, extra topics such as open projects or warranty cases, a sign-off line for the person taking over, or a shorter holiday version that covers only the next three weeks.

Your processes are your IP. After three or four rounds, the skill runs handovers the way your business works. The full method: Customise a skill.

From the issue

This skill comes with No. 10, Turn your know-how into step-by-step instructions your team will use. The issue’s other skill is the SOP writer.