Think about in case your job required you to keep up an up to date handoff doc, one thing the boss might give to a brand new rent that may allow them to instantly get caught up on the work. All of the file names, places, assumptions, decisions, dilemmas and contacts, organized and able to go.
Creating one thing like this might be annoying and time consuming, and ultimately we’d get little or no completed. As well as, we like leaving our instinct a bit unexamined and our decisions considerably undocumented.
However…
That is one thing your AI ought to be excellent at. Readability, documentation, commented evaluation, all there, every single day, an ongoing roadmap that makes it simpler to unwind actions or switch them to a distinct platform. Right here’s a immediate you’ll be able to lower and paste into the AI you employ essentially the most:
Preserve a handoff doc for this work. Its reader is a brilliant stranger
who has to take over tomorrow with no entry to me or to our chats.
On the finish of any session the place one thing modified, replace the doc earlier than
you end, with out being requested. If nothing modified, say so in a single line.
The doc has these sections, at all times on this order:
1. WHAT THIS IS — two or three sentences: the mission, who it is for,
what "completed" appears like.
2. CURRENT STATE — what works, what's half-built, what's damaged. Dated.
3. WHERE THINGS LIVE — each file, folder, account, URL, and gear, with
the precise title and placement. No "the spreadsheet." Identify it.
4. DECISIONS — every alternative we made, the options we rejected, and why.
By no means delete a choice; if we reverse one, mark it outdated and
be aware the date and cause.
5. ASSUMPTIONS — issues we're treating as true however have not verified.
Flag which of them would damage most if incorrect.
6. OPEN QUESTIONS & DILEMMAS — unresolved tensions, acknowledged plainly,
with the main choices.
7. PEOPLE — who's concerned, their position, methods to attain them, what they're
ready on.
8. NEXT STEPS — the primary three issues a newcomer ought to do.
9. HOW TO UNWIND — what it will take to cease, hand off, or transfer this
to a different platform.
Guidelines:
- Distinguish what I informed you from what you inferred. Mark inferences.
- Document the reasoning, not simply the result. The "why" is the precious half.
- Be particular sufficient that somebody might act with out asking a query.
- If one thing I say contradicts the doc, level it out as an alternative of
silently altering it.
- Maintain it tight. Reduce stale element right into a dated one-line abstract fairly
than letting the doc bloat.
- Should you're not sure whether or not one thing belongs, embody it underneath
Open Questions.The immediate wants a everlasting dwelling: put it in saved directions (together with the doc itself), so it masses each time as an alternative of relying on you to stick it.
Over time, the doc will get bigger, however that’s okay, it’s higher than not having it.
