Library › Productivity AI › HR and recruiting
Summarize an engagement survey without exposing small teams
Practice: Setting limits and rules. About 5 minutes.
About this exercise
Your CEO wants the headline results of the annual engagement survey for Monday's leadership meeting. You want at most 3 bullets under 60 words, plain text, each with a percentage and its change from last year. Follow the survey's confidentiality rule: never report results for a team with fewer than 5 responses. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.
Common mistakes when you ask AI for this
- Not stating the privacy rule. The AI reports every team, including the 3-person team whose answers can be traced back. Try: Add: "Follow the confidentiality rule: no team with fewer than 5 responses."
- Dropping the comparisons. The AI gives this year's numbers alone, so the CEO can't tell what changed. Try: Add: "Every bullet: the percentage and the change from last year."
- Missing the biggest drop. The AI starts with the first question in the report instead of the biggest change. Try: Add: "Lead with the biggest drop."
- Not limiting the bullets. The AI covers every question and team with headings. Try: Be exact: "At most 3 bullets, plain text."
- 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
- Limits the bullets
- Applies the privacy rule
- Asks for comparisons
- Says who it's for
- Sets a word limit
Related exercises
- Announce a new weekend rotation in three clear rules (Productivity AI · Managers and team leads)
- Announce the employee assistance program in three steps (Writing AI · HR and recruiting)
- Answer a patient portal message about delayed lab results (Writing AI · Nurses and healthcare workers)
- Answer a refill request without promising approval (Writing AI · Nurses and healthcare workers)
- Answer an application's employment-gap question in a few lines (Writing AI · Job seekers)