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Map a team's quarterly goals to months after a hiring freeze

Practice: Setting limits and rules. About 5 minutes.

About this exercise

You lead a 6-person billing team and need Q1 milestones for your director's planning doc. You want exactly 3 numbered lines, one per month (January, February, March), each listing that month's milestones, under 60 words, plain text. Respect the dependency in your notes and the director's hiring freeze, which pushes one goal out of Q1 entirely. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Missing the freeze. Hiring is in your goal list, so the AI schedules it. Try: Add: "Hiring freeze: drop goal D from Q1."
  • Ignoring the dependency. The AI starts portal approvals in January alongside the handbook. Try: Add: "Portal approvals can only start after the SOP handbook is done."
  • Overloading months. The AI stacks 3-4 milestones into January. Try: Add: "At most 2 milestones per month."
  • Letting the AI pick the layout. The AI builds a Gantt-style table. Try: Be exact: "Exactly 3 numbered lines, Jan, Feb, Mar. 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

  • Says how many lines
  • Mentions the freeze
  • States the dependency
  • Limits per month
  • Sets a word limit

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