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Pick three of seven requests under a capacity limit

  • For Product managers
  • You practice Setting limits and rules
  • Time about 5 minutes
  • Level Intermediate

About this exercise

Your team has 20 engineer-days left this sprint. Choose which requests fit. Reply with a recommendation line first, exactly: Recommend: ... (the three request names, comma separated). Then one line per chosen request showing its days, then one line showing the sum against 20. Then one line naming the single highest-value request you cut and why in under 12 words. Use only numbers from the table.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • No recommendation up front. The AI discusses trade-offs for paragraphs before choosing. Try: Say: "First line: Recommend: then the three names."
  • Using the stale estimate. The AI uses 3 days for the CSV fix from the first table row. Try: Say: "Use the Tuesday update: CSV export is 4 days."
  • No cut explained. The AI lists what it picked and never says what it gave up. Try: Say: "End with the highest-value request you cut and a reason under 12 words."
  • Markdown tables and bold. The AI returns a styled table. Try: Say: "Plain text, no bold, no table."
  • 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 line: "each line under 20 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

  • Puts the pick first
  • Shows days and the sum
  • Uses the update
  • Names what was cut
  • Plain text

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