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Tell sales and support about a delay without leaking details

Practice: Saying who it's for. About 5 minutes.

About this exercise

Your release slipped and the sales and support leads need to know today. Write an email under 100 words whose first line is the new date. Include the approved customer-facing sentence word for word in quotation marks, and tell them what not to promise. Leave out the vendor's name and the bug details, since sales tends to repeat everything to customers. Write a prompt that gets that email.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for "under 100 words" and it often lands well over. Try: Cap each part: "First line under 12 words, then 3 short bullets of under 15 words."
  • Telling the story first. The AI walks through the engineering history before getting to the new date. Try: Say it: "First line: the new date, February 24."
  • Paraphrasing the approved line. The AI rewrites legal's sentence in its own words, which defeats the approval. Try: Add: "Include legal's customer line word for word in quotes."
  • Leaking the details. Trying to be helpful, the AI names the vendor and the bug, which sales will repeat to customers. Try: Add: "Don't name the vendor or bugs. Tell reps: no beta access, no reasons."
  • Forgetting where it gets pasted. AI adds bold and headings by default, which show up as ** and # clutter in most email clients when pasted. Try: Add: "Plain text, no bold, no headings."

What a strong prompt includes

  • Sets a word limit
  • Puts the date first
  • Keeps the approved line exact
  • Keeps out the vendor
  • Asks for plain text

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