Start with the work, not the wording
Imagine asking a colleague to “write something for our customers.” They would need to know which customers, what you want them to understand, and what information they can trust. An AI assistant needs that context too. A longer instruction is not automatically better. The useful details are the ones that change what a good answer looks like.
Build a brief with five ingredients
Name the task, the audience, the source material, the constraints, and the output format. For a customer email, that might mean: explain a delayed delivery to a first-time buyer; use the order facts provided; make no promise about an unconfirmed arrival date; keep it under 150 words; finish with one clear next step. These requirements let you review the result against something concrete.
Give it evidence it can actually use
Provide the relevant excerpt, table, or approved notes rather than assuming the system knows your business. Label facts and assumptions separately. If information is missing, tell the assistant to identify the gap. Ask it to cite the supplied material when the task involves factual synthesis. A citation still needs checking: it is a pointer to evidence, not proof that the interpretation is correct.
Use an example to teach the standard
A sample of a good output can communicate tone and structure more clearly than a long list of adjectives. Explain why the example works. For instance: “The opening states the decision, the middle explains the reason, and the final line names the owner and deadline.” Ask for the same pattern without copying irrelevant details. Compare the new output with your example before accepting it.
Change one thing at a time
When a result is weak, identify the specific failure. Is the audience wrong? Is the evidence missing? Is the requested format too vague? Add or revise the part of the brief that addresses that failure. Changing everything at once makes it harder to learn which instruction helped. Keep useful versions so that your next attempt starts from experience.
Try this in ten minutes
Choose a recent low-risk task. Write the five ingredients of its brief, then ask your approved AI tool for a draft. Score the result for factual accuracy, fit for the audience, completeness, and actionability. Revise the lowest-scoring part once. Save both versions and write one sentence explaining what improved. That explanation is the beginning of your own reusable workflow.