For Graphic Designers ·
What you'll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you'll have Otter.ai set up to automatically transcribe your client calls, and a workflow to feed those transcripts into Claude to extract a structured creative brief — complete with deliverables, audience, aesthetic preferences, and timeline — that you send to the client for sign-off before starting any design work.
What you'll need
What you should see: Your Otter.ai dashboard with a "New Conversation" button and an empty conversations list.
For automatic transcription (Pro feature):
For manual transcription (free plan):
What you should see: For auto-join: a confirmation that your calendar is connected and upcoming meetings show in the Otter dashboard. For manual: a red recording indicator and live transcription appearing as you speak.
During the call:
After the call, go to your Otter dashboard and click on the conversation — you'll see the full transcript with speaker labels.
What you should see: A timestamped transcript where each speaker is labeled (Speaker 1, Speaker 2). You can edit speaker names by clicking the label.
This is a transcript from a client kickoff call for a design project. Extract a structured creative brief with these sections:
1. Project Overview (what they want, in one paragraph)
2. Deliverables (specific files, formats, quantities)
3. Target Audience (who the design is for)
4. Aesthetic Direction (visual preferences, reference brands, style notes)
5. Timeline and Milestones
6. Budget (if mentioned)
7. Open Questions (things that were unclear or need confirmation)
Format it as a clean document I can send to the client for sign-off.
What you should see: A clean, structured brief in 30–60 seconds that captures the key decisions from the call.
Wrap the extracted brief in a short email:
Hi [Name],
Thanks for the call today — great to get started on this project. I've summarized what we discussed below as a brief to make sure we're aligned before I dive in. Please review and let me know if anything needs adjusting.
[Paste brief here]
Once you confirm this looks right, I'll start on initial concepts and share them by [date].
Send it within a few hours of the call while it's fresh in both parties' minds.
Basic brief extraction:
Extract a creative brief from this transcript: [paste transcript]. Include: Project Overview, Deliverables, Target Audience, Aesthetic Direction, Timeline, Open Questions.
For complex multi-stakeholder calls:
This transcript has multiple stakeholders who gave different feedback. Identify any contradictions in their preferences and flag them as items needing resolution. Then extract the brief.
Converting brief to a client-facing confirmation email:
Take this project brief and write a short confirmation email I can send to the client. Start with a warm thank-you, include the brief as structured notes, and end with a request for confirmation and a next step.