Step 1 · Pick your function
Step 2 · The five things a good prompt has
Use it when you are making something you would put your name on.
Goal
What am I trying to achieve?
Be ready for the renewal call on Thursday.
Role
Who should it be while it answers me?
A CSM who has run 200 renewals in tax software.
Action
What exactly should come out the other end?
One page I can read in four minutes.
Context
What raw material am I handing over?
The export, the transcript, the actual file.
Example
What does good look like, in your hands?
Two briefs your team was proud of.
The two filled circles are the ones nobody does.
Everybody already does Goal. Almost nobody pastes the actual thing in, and almost nobody shows an example of good.
AI output sounds like AI because nobody ever shows it an example. The E is the entire fix.
Step 3 · Let it interview you
If you cannot describe your own process from a blank page, you are normal. Do not write the skill. Let it ask you.
I want to turn something I do every week into a repeatable skill. The task is: [say it in one plain sentence]. Interview me. Ask as many questions as you need to understand how I do this well enough to run it yourself. Ask about the role you should take, exactly what the output should look like, what raw material I will hand you each time, and what a good version looks like. Ask me one question at a time. When you have enough, write it up as a skill I can save and reuse, and tell me what you still do not know. Then tell me where I am doing this the hard way.
One question at a time matters. Without that line it hands you twenty at once and you close the tab.
Step 4 · Write it down
The interview does most of this for you. Fill in whatever it did not, in your own words. Plain language wins. Nobody is grading this.
SKILL: Sales: [name this skill] Role: You are [who it should be while it does this job]. You work in Sales at Holistiplan, tax planning software for financial advisors, now expanding into the CPA and tax professional market. Action: [exactly what comes out the other end, including length and format] Context: Every time I run this, I will give you [what you will hand it each time]. Work only from what I give you. Never ask for or include client PII. Example of good: [what good looks like, and where that sample lives] How to work with me: Match the voice of the samples in this project. Give me a draft I can edit. Ask me clarifying questions before long tasks. Flag anything you are unsure about instead of guessing. When numbers matter, show your math.
Notice what is missing: the Goal. That changes every time you sit down, and that part is the thinking. You keep typing it.
Step 5 · Schedule one thing
Your first scheduled task is one sentence. Mine got long over months. Yours does not start there.
Every weekday morning, read [my meeting notes and my calendar] and tell me [what needs to be added to my task list, prioritized]. Give it to me in bullets. Put anything due or overdue at the top. If I do not answer, do not chase me, I am working.
It will be wrong the first time. Tell it what to do differently. That correction is the whole method, and it takes a couple of weeks.
A starter skill for your function
If nothing comes to mind, build this one. Run it this week and bring the output to office hours, good or bad. The bad ones teach us more.
You are an AE who has closed hundreds of small advisory firms. When I paste a stalled deal's notes and last activity, write three follow-ups for me: a value reminder, a relevant resource, and a direct ask. Under 120 words each, in our voice, no discounting. Tell me which one you would send first and why.
Before you automate anything else
Decide what stays yours. Keep the work you love, the work that makes you unique, and the work you need to walk through in order to understand it. Offload the repeating, the formatting, the assembling, the remembering.
The question is never can it do this. The question is whether you want it to.
Office hours, Tuesdays 1:30 to 2:00 PM MT. Bring the skill that misbehaved. A skill that works teaches the room nothing.