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Write an outage text message without promising a fix time
Practice: Setting limits and rules. About 5 minutes.
About this exercise
Card payments in the Pocketwise app are down, and you need a text message to affected customers. Keep it under 35 words and in at most 3 sentences, plain text. Say exactly what's broken and what still works, give the time of the next update, and don't promise when it will be fixed. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.
Common mistakes when you ask AI for this
- Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for "under 35 words" and it often lands well over. Try: Cap each part instead: "3 sentences, each under 11 words."
- Leaving the customer guessing. The AI writes "we're having issues" without saying what's broken or that money is safe. Try: Add: "Say card payments are failing, and balances are safe."
- Promising a fix time. The engineer's guess of 3 PM is in the thread, and the AI likes to sound reassuring. Try: Add: "Don't give any fix time. Say the next update is at 3:30 PM ET."
- Writing a full email. The AI writes a long apology with offers, far too long for a text. Try: Add: "At most 3 sentences. Don't offer refunds."
- Formatting a text message. Bold and headings show up as symbols in a text message. Try: Add: "Plain text, no bold, no greeting line."
What a strong prompt includes
- Says what's broken
- Gives the next update time
- Bans a fix time
- Limits the sentences
- Sets a word limit
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