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Draft a holding statement for comms and legal review, facts only

  • For Executives
  • You practice Setting limits and rules
  • Time about 5 minutes
  • Level Advanced

About this exercise

Draft a holding statement for a press inquiry about a service outage. Plain text, under 90 words. Line 1 exactly: DRAFT - for Communications and Legal review. Then the statement: 3 sentences. Sentence 1 states what happened with the date and duration. Sentence 2 says what you did. Sentence 3 says when you will share more. Use confirmed facts only, no cause, no blame, no estimate of customers affected and no promise of compensation.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Stating a cause. The AI mentions a vendor update. Try: Say: "No cause until confirmed."
  • Giving a customer count. The AI estimates thousands. Try: Say: "Don't give a number of customers."
  • Old duration. The AI says 60 minutes. Try: Say: "The duration is 75 minutes."
  • Missing draft line. The AI writes the statement as final. Try: Say: "Line 1 exactly: DRAFT - for Communications and Legal review."
  • Markdown. The AI bolds. Try: Say: "Plain text."
  • Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it. Try: Cap each sentence: "each under 25 words."
  • Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it. Try: Cap each part instead, for example: "each line under 12 words."

What a strong prompt includes

  • Draft line
  • Three sentences
  • Confirmed only
  • Bans
  • Duration

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