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A useful starting point.

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The workflow brief

Use before asking AI to produce a business deliverable.

Best for summaries, handoffs, drafts, and recurring operations.

WORKFLOW BRIEF

Business and audience: [who we are and who needs the result]
Situation: [what is happening]
Desired outcome: [what the result should help someone do]
Task trigger: [what starts the work]
Responsible person: [who reviews and owns the result]

Approved inputs and source dates:
- [source, date, and relevant facts]

Constraints and policies:
- [what must be respected]
- [what the model is not allowed to assume or do]

Output format: [brief, draft, table, checklist]
Example of a useful result: [approved example]
Definition of done: [quality criteria]

Before starting, restate the task and identify missing information. Use only supplied facts for factual claims. Label unknowns, surface conflicts, and cite sources. Produce a draft for human review. Do not take external actions unless explicitly authorized.

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The decision partner

Use when the right question is still unclear or you are converging too quickly.

Best for priorities, workflow changes, and evaluating a proposed solution.

DECISION PARTNER

Observed problem: [what actually happened]
Decision to make: [what needs choosing]
My current hypothesis: [what I think is causing it]
Known facts: [evidence and sources]
Assumptions: [what I have not confirmed]
Constraints: [people, time, budget, policies]
Preferences: [tradeoffs I care about]

Help me examine this decision.
1. Restate the question that matters.
2. Separate facts from assumptions.
3. Give the strongest competing explanation.
4. Describe workable alternatives and the conditions for each to succeed.
5. Identify the smallest observation or experiment that could change the decision.
6. Explain what remains uncertain.

If the proposed solution is premature, say so. Do not treat agreement or confidence as evidence.

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The pilot scorecard

Use to compare an AI-assisted workflow against the work you do today.

Best before expanding a pilot or allowing the system to act.

PILOT SCORECARD

Workflow: [bounded task]
Pilot owner: [responsible person]
Desired business result: [outcome]
Current baseline: [how the task works today]
Allowed actions: [exact scope]
Review criteria: [correctness, completeness, source accuracy]
Stop condition: [when to stop the pilot]
Manual recovery: [how work continues if it fails]

For each test case, record:
- Case ID and source inputs
- Expected useful result
- Actual result and factual errors
- Missing information or exceptions
- Preparation time
- Review and correction time
- Current method time
- Operating cost
- Any unauthorized action or incorrect commitment
- Human reviewer and decision

Include typical cases, difficult cases, and cases that require escalation. Keep some cases aside while improving the workflow.

Pilot conclusion:
- Evidence of improvement
- Failure patterns
- Remaining uncertainty
- Decision: expand supervised pilot / revise / stop
- Next review date and owner

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