The Business Brief: Prompts That Produce Usable Work

The difference between "AI is a toy" and "AI saves me five hours a week" is almost always the brief. Treat a prompt the way you'd delegate to a capable new hire: they're smart and fast, but they know nothing about your business, your customers or your standards unless you tell them. Vague delegation gets vague work, from people and from AI.

The six-part business brief

Strong business prompts cover six things. You won't need all six every time, but the more the task matters, the more of them you should include.

1. Goal: what the output is for and what success looks like. "Draft a follow-up email that gets the prospect to book a second call" beats "write a follow-up email."
2. Context: who you are, who the audience is, and any background that changes the answer.
3. Inputs: the material to work from, such as notes, a transcript, data or a previous document, clearly separated from your instructions.
4. Constraints: length, tone, what must be included, what must be avoided, and which facts must not be invented.
5. Format: exactly what to return, such as a table, three options, or an email with a subject line.
6. Examples: one or two samples of "good." This is the single most powerful thing you can add.

A practical tip: label each part clearly and wrap pasted material in triple quotes or simple tags, so the AI can tell your instructions apart from the content it's working on.

Before and after

Here's a typical first attempt:

Write a follow-up email to a prospect.

You'll get something polite, generic and unusable. Now the same request as a business brief:

GOAL: Draft a follow-up email to a prospect after a discovery call. Success = they book a 30-minute proposal review.

CONTEXT: We are [COMPANY], a [WHAT YOU DO] for [WHO YOU SERVE]. The prospect is [NAME, ROLE, COMPANY]. They're comparing us with one other provider.

INPUTS (my call notes):
"""
[PASTE NOTES]
"""

CONSTRAINTS:
- Under 150 words. Warm, direct, no hype.
- Reference two specific things they told us.
- Use only facts from my notes. If something is missing, write [CHECK] instead of guessing.
- One clear call to action using this link: [BOOKING LINK]

FORMAT: Subject line, then the email, then one alternative subject line.

EXAMPLE OF OUR TONE:
"""
[PASTE A PAST EMAIL YOU LIKED]
"""

That's longer to write the first time, but it becomes a reusable template, and the output is something you can send after a quick review.

Four techniques the pros use

• Ask me questions first. For anything complex, end your prompt with: "Before you start, ask me up to five questions about anything you need to do this well." The questions often reveal what you forgot to say.
• Break big jobs into steps. Ask for an outline, approve it, then draft section by section. Each step is easier to check than one giant answer.
• Ask for options, then choose. "Give me three subject lines in different styles" turns you from writer into editor, which is faster and usually better.
• Make it critique itself. After a draft, ask: "Check your draft against my constraints, list anything it misses, then fix it." Or: "What would a skeptical customer object to in this?"

The [CHECK] rule

AI fills gaps with plausible guesses. In business, a plausible guess about a price, a date or a promise is a liability. So build this line into every prompt that touches facts:

Use only the information I've provided. If something is missing or unclear, write [CHECK] instead of guessing.

Then search the draft for [CHECK] before anything goes out. It's a tiny habit that makes invented details far easier to catch.

Three templates to save now

Template A: turn messy notes into a clean document.

Turn the notes below into a [TYPE OF DOCUMENT] for [AUDIENCE].
Structure: [HEADINGS OR SECTIONS].
Keep every fact, number and name exactly as written. Don't add facts. Mark anything unclear with [CHECK].

Notes:
"""
[PASTE]
"""

Template B: reply to a customer message.

You're drafting a reply on behalf of [COMPANY]. Our relevant policies:
"""
[PASTE POLICY OR FAQ]
"""
Customer message:
"""
[PASTE]
"""
Write a reply that answers every question they asked, follows our policies exactly and sounds [TONE]. If our policies don't cover something, put a note to me above the draft instead of making up an answer.

Template C: get a second opinion.

Here is a [PLAN / EMAIL / OFFER / PROCESS] I've written for [PURPOSE]:
"""
[PASTE]
"""
Act as [A SKEPTICAL CUSTOMER / AN EXPERIENCED OPERATIONS MANAGER / A COMPETITOR]. List the five biggest weaknesses in order of importance and suggest a specific fix for each. Be blunt.

Do this now

Take one task from your first three projects. Write a full six-part brief for it and run it. Then run it again with one real example of "good" added, and compare the two results side by side. Save the better prompt; it becomes the first entry in your team prompt library in the next lesson.

Key takeaways

• Prompt like you delegate: goal, context, inputs, constraints, format and examples.
• Examples of "good" are the most powerful thing you can add to a prompt.
• Ask for questions, work in steps, request options and have AI critique its own draft.
• Use the [CHECK] rule so missing facts are flagged instead of invented.