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Tell a user calmly that their account was reset

  • For IT and security teams
  • You practice Getting the tone right
  • Time about 5 minutes

About this exercise

Message the user whose account you just locked after an overnight flood of sign-in prompts. She's not technical and may feel embarrassed. One opening sentence on what happened with no blame, then exactly 3 numbered steps, using only the contact details in the notes. No security jargon (no MFA fatigue, push bombing, threat actor or compromise). Plain text, under 80 words.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Sounding like an incident report. The AI recites the timeline and IP address, which scares a non-technical reader. Try: Say: "One calm sentence on what happened. No IPs or jargon."
  • Blaming the user. The AI often says 'you approved a fraudulent request', which makes people hide mistakes next time. Try: Add: "No blame. She may feel embarrassed."
  • Vague next steps. The AI says 'contact IT' without the time, extension or what to watch for. Try: Ask: "3 numbered steps using the 8:30 call and ext. 4400 from the notes."
  • Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for "under 80 words" and it often lands well over. Try: Ask for less than the limit and cap each line: "each line under 15 words, under 60 words total."
  • Letting markdown in. AI adds bold and headings by default, and in a chat message they show up as stray symbols. Try: Add: "Plain text only, no bold, no headings."

What a strong prompt includes

  • Sets a calm, no-blame tone
  • Says who it's for
  • Bans jargon
  • Says exactly how many
  • Sets a word limit

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