Turn a messy email thread into an update for your boss

About this exercise

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.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

• Just saying "summarize this". The AI picks the length and shape for you, and it defaults to long and thorough. Try: Give a hard limit: "at most 3 bullets."
• Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for "under 70 words" and it often lands at 80. Try: Ask for about 25% fewer words than your real limit: "under 50 words."
• Burying the decision. The AI tells the story in the order the emails came. The one thing Dana must act on ends up in the middle. Try: Say what goes first: "Open with the decision she needs to make and the deadline."
• Dropping the why. Squeezed for space, the AI cuts the reason for the delay, and Dana can't defend the new date in her meeting. Try: Ask for it: "Say what changed and why in one bullet."
• Ignoring where it will be read. AI loves bold and headings. In Slack on a phone, those show up as ** and # clutter. Try: Name the place and the format: "For Slack. Plain text, no bold or headings."
• Not saying what to leave out. Without a filter the AI includes everything, plus a "Here's a summary" intro nobody needs. Try: Add: "Output only the update. Skip small talk."

What a strong prompt includes

• Says who it's for
• Puts the decision first
• Limits the bullets
• Sets a word limit
• Asks for plain text

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