Guide
Write a brief it can follow
The five parts of a brief that get a useful first draft: the job, the reader, the material, the format, and the check.
A new hire does better work when the first instruction is clear, and an AI assistant is the same. This guide covers the five parts of a brief, with an example you can copy and change for your own job.
The five parts
- The job. Say what you want made, in one sentence: a reply, a summary, a first draft.
- The reader. Say who reads the result and what they already know.
- The material. Attach or paste what it should work from. Without it, the assistant guesses.
- The format. Give the length, the tone, and the shape: three bullet points, one paragraph, a table.
- The check. Say what to do when the material doesn’t cover the question.
You’re helping our customer service team. Our customers are salon owners. Answer from the attached return policy, in a friendly, short reply. If the policy doesn’t cover a question, say so and flag it for a person.
Write it once, use it every day
Save the brief where your team can find it. The next time the same job comes up, paste the brief, add the new material, and send. The one-page brief template has a box for each part.
When the draft misses
Read the draft against the five parts. Most misses trace back to one of them:
- The draft runs long: the format didn’t give a length.
- The draft invents a detail: the material was missing, or the check didn’t say what to do.
- The draft sounds wrong for the reader: the brief didn’t say who reads it.
Change the brief as well as the draft, so the fix holds the next time.
