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Group a support meeting's action items by owner for Slack
Practice: Asking for a format you can use. About 5 minutes.
About this exercise
You run the weekly support team meeting and post action items in Slack so each person can find theirs fast. You want exactly 3 numbered lines, one per owner, each as Name: task (due), task (due), under 60 words, plain text. Use the final owner when a task moved, and leave out anything that's waiting on another team rather than an action for us. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.
Common mistakes when you ask AI for this
- Listing tasks one by one. The AI makes one line per task, so people scan the whole list to find theirs. Try: Add: "One line per owner: Name: task (due), task (due)."
- Missing the handoff. Tasha's name sits next to the article, so the AI keeps it there. Try: Add: "Omar took the help center article from Tasha."
- Including other teams' work. The AI turns 'waiting on product' into an action item. Try: Add: "Skip anything waiting on another team."
- Letting the AI pick the layout. The AI uses bold names and nested bullets that Slack shows as clutter. Try: Be exact: "Plain text, no bold, no sub-bullets."
- Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for "under 60 words" and it often lands well over. Try: Cap each part instead: "each line under 14 words."
What a strong prompt includes
- Says how many lines
- Groups by owner
- Handles the handoff
- Skips other teams
- Sets a word limit
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