{"id":"boss-update","audience":"office","category":"summarizing","technique":"audience","title":"Turn a messy email thread into an update for your boss","task":"Your manager, Dana, reads updates on her phone in Slack, 2 minutes before her leadership meeting. She wants the decision she has to make first, then at most 3 bullets, under 70 words in total, and plain text (Slack shows bold and headings as messy symbols). Write a prompt that gets her exactly that.","featured":true,"free":true,"materialLabel":"Email thread (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"From: Priya (Engineering)\nTo: Launch team\nSubject: Re: Re: Re: Checkout v2 launch\n\nQuick update - Stripe still hasn't issued our production API keys. Their support says 5-7 business days. Without them we can't run the payment tests, so March 3 isn't realistic. My honest guess is March 14.\n\n---\nFrom: Marco (Marketing)\nAgreed we should slip. Heads up though: the launch email is scheduled for March 3 and the agency charges a $4,000 rebooking fee to move the send. Someone with budget authority needs to approve that by Friday or we lose the slot entirely.\n\n---\nFrom: Priya (Engineering)\nAlso FYI the new address autocomplete is done and QA passed it yesterday, so that part is good to go. Lunch Thursday is at the Thai place btw.\n\n---\nFrom: Sam (Support)\nCan we make sure the help center articles go live the same day as the launch? Last time they were 2 days late and tickets doubled. I can have drafts ready by March 10.\n\n---\nFrom: Marco (Marketing)\nAlso did anyone see the new office plants? Loving them.","rules":[{"type":"maxWords","max":70},{"type":"maxBullets","max":3},{"type":"plainText"}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Says who it's for","patterns":["dana","manager","boss"]},{"label":"Puts the decision first","patterns":["decision","approv","first line","lead with","start with"]},{"label":"Limits the bullets","patterns":["\\b(3|three)\\b.{0,15}bullet","bullet.{0,20}\\b(3|three)\\b"]},{"label":"Sets a word limit","patterns":["\\d+\\s*words","word (limit|count)"]},{"label":"Asks for plain text","patterns":["plain","no bold","no markdown","no formatting","no headings"]}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Just saying \"summarize this\"","why":"The AI picks the length and shape for you, and it defaults to long and thorough.","fix":"Give a hard limit: \"at most 3 bullets.\"","checks":["maxBullets"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for \"under 70 words\" and it often lands at 80.","fix":"Ask for about 25% fewer words than your real limit: \"under 50 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]},{"title":"Burying the decision","why":"The AI tells the story in the order the emails came. The one thing Dana must act on ends up in the middle.","fix":"Say what goes first: \"Open with the decision she needs to make and the deadline.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Dropping the why","why":"Squeezed for space, the AI cuts the reason for the delay, and Dana can't defend the new date in her meeting.","fix":"Ask for it: \"Say what changed and why in one bullet.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Ignoring where it will be read","why":"AI loves bold and headings. In Slack on a phone, those show up as ** and # clutter.","fix":"Name the place and the format: \"For Slack. Plain text, no bold or headings.\"","checks":["plainText"]},{"title":"Not saying what to leave out","why":"Without a filter the AI includes everything, plus a \"Here's a summary\" intro nobody needs.","fix":"Add: \"Output only the update. Skip small talk.\"","checks":["r2"]}],"hint":"The AI can't read Dana's mind. Spell out her rules in your prompt: what goes first, how many bullets, how many words, and what formatting to avoid.","rubricLabels":["The decision Dana must make (approve the $4,000 rebooking fee by Friday) comes before any other news (a greeting before it is fine; that is judged separately)","Covers the new launch date (around March 14) and why (Stripe has not issued production API keys)","Leaves out chatter (lunch, office plants), adds no preamble like 'Here's a summary', and invents nothing"]}