Appendix B: Prompt Templates

These templates are ready to copy and customize. Each follows the five-step Workflow Structure (Trigger → Input → AI Processing → Human Review → Action) and is tagged by reader segment.

Decision Support Prompts

Meeting Summary and Action Items

Best for: Department Leaders, Senior Leaders

I just finished a meeting. Here are my notes:

[Paste raw notes or transcript]

Please provide:
1. A 3-sentence summary of what was decided
2. Action items with owners and deadlines (if mentioned)
3. Any open questions that weren't resolved
4. Anything that was agreed but might need follow-up confirmation

Format the action items as a bulleted list with the owner's name bolded.

Review checkpoint: Verify action items match what was actually agreed. AI frequently invents deadlines or assigns ownership that wasn’t explicitly stated.

Daily Priority Briefing

Best for: Individual Contributors, Department Leaders

Here's what's on my plate today:

[List your tasks, meetings, deadlines]

My top priority this week is: [state it]

Help me:
1. Identify the 3 most important things to accomplish today
2. Flag anything that conflicts with my weekly priority
3. Suggest what I can defer or delegate without consequence
4. Note any preparation I should do before my meetings

Review checkpoint: Verify it didn’t deprioritize something critical or overweight busy-work that feels productive.

Content and Communication Prompts

Email Draft with Stakeholder Awareness

Best for: All segments

I need to send an email about: [topic]

To: [recipient and their role]
Tone: [professional/casual/urgent/diplomatic]
Key points to cover:
- [Point 1]
- [Point 2]
- [Point 3]

Context they already know: [brief background]
Sensitive aspects to handle carefully: [if any]

Draft the email. Keep it under [X] paragraphs.

Review checkpoint: Check tone, accuracy of claims, and whether it says anything you wouldn’t say in person.

Customer Response Draft

Best for: Department Leaders, Individual Contributors

A customer sent this message:

[Paste customer message]

Context:
- Our policy on this issue is: [state it]
- This customer's history: [brief note if relevant]
- My authority level: [what I can/can't offer]

Draft a response that:
1. Acknowledges their concern specifically (not generically)
2. Explains what we can do
3. Sets clear expectations for next steps
4. Maintains a warm but professional tone

Review checkpoint: Verify you’re not making promises beyond your authority. Check that the acknowledgment references their actual issue, not a generic “we understand your frustration.”

Analysis and Research Prompts

Competitive Intelligence Summary

Best for: Senior Leaders, Small Company CEOs

I need a competitive analysis framework for evaluating [competitor/market segment].

Our company: [brief description]
Our differentiator: [what makes us different]
Key question I'm trying to answer: [specific question]

For each competitor I provide, analyze:
1. Their apparent positioning (based on what's publicly available)
2. Where they seem stronger than us
3. Where we seem stronger than them
4. Potential threats or opportunities

I'll provide the competitor details in follow-up messages.

Review checkpoint: AI has no access to private competitive data. Verify all claims against sources you can check. Treat this as a starting framework, not finished intelligence.

Process Improvement Analysis

Best for: Department Leaders, Individual Contributors

Here's a process my team runs regularly:

[Describe the process step by step]

Current pain points:
- [Pain point 1]
- [Pain point 2]

Help me identify:
1. Which steps could benefit from AI assistance (score each using FFCC)
2. Where human judgment is essential and shouldn't be automated
3. The single highest-impact improvement I could make this week
4. What data I should start tracking to measure improvement

Review checkpoint: Verify the FFCC scores against your actual experience. AI tends to overrate how “forgiving” errors are because it doesn’t know your organizational context.

Team and Management Prompts

One-on-One Preparation

Best for: Department Leaders, Senior Leaders

I have a one-on-one with [name/role] tomorrow.

What I know about their current situation:
- [Current projects or responsibilities]
- [Recent wins or challenges]
- [Any concerns I've noticed]

My goals for this conversation:
- [Goal 1]
- [Goal 2]

Help me prepare:
1. Three open-ended questions that get beyond status updates
2. A way to frame [difficult topic] constructively
3. Anything I might be missing based on the context above

Review checkpoint: Ensure the questions feel natural to your management style. Remove anything that sounds like it came from a management textbook rather than a genuine conversation.

Team Rollout Communication

Best for: Department Leaders, Small Company CEOs

I'm introducing a new AI workflow to my team:

The workflow: [describe it]
What it changes for them: [be specific]
Their likely concerns: [list what you anticipate]
Timeline: [when this starts]

Draft an announcement that:
1. Explains what's changing and why (lead with the benefit to them)
2. Addresses the top 2-3 concerns directly
3. Makes clear what's NOT changing (their roles, their judgment calls)
4. Includes a specific "try this Monday" first step
5. Invites questions without being condescending

Review checkpoint: Read it from your team’s perspective. Does it sound like you? Would you believe it if your boss sent it to you?

Using These Templates

These templates are starting points, not scripts. The best prompt is one you’ve customized to your specific context, refined through use, and incorporated into your master prompt. If you’re not sure which template fits your situation, the Decision Flowcharts in Appendix D can help you identify what kind of workflow you need.

To customize effectively:

Replace the bracketed sections with your real context
Run it once and note where the output misses your expectations
Add those expectations to the prompt
After 3–5 uses, extract it into a Task Library variant of your master prompt

Remember the Review Spectrum: Every AI output from these templates requires human review before action. New templates start at Deep Review. As you build confidence in a specific template’s output quality, calibrate down to Spot-Check.