Setting up a session that helps: templates, instructions and answer length

Start from a template

Every new session starts from one of seventeen templates, each with a role and instructions already written for a particular kind of conversation:

• Interview, hiring debrief, one-on-one.
• Negotiation, client discovery, sales demo.
• Sprint planning, daily standup, decision meeting, product review, design review.
• Support triage, incident review, user research.
• Lecture notes, translation, coding task.
• No template, for anything else: a blank session where you write the role and instructions yourself.

Edit the instructions for this conversation

The instructions are the part that matters. A template's defaults are a good start; your own conversation is more specific. Edit them before you start, so the assistant knows this conversation rather than conversations in general.

Good instructions tell the assistant three things: who you are in the conversation, what you want out of it, and what to stay quiet about.

• “I am the buyer. The supplier will propose a price; flag any number that is higher than last quarter's.”
• “This is a standup. Only note blockers and who is waiting on whom. Ignore status updates.”
• “I am the interviewer. Note each claim the candidate makes about their experience, so I can ask about it later.”

Choose how long an answer should be

Answers come in three lengths: brief, balanced and detailed. During a live conversation brief is almost always right — you have a few seconds to glance at the screen, not a minute to read. Detailed is for afterwards, or for sessions where the assistant is explaining rather than prompting.

Projects hold sessions

Put sessions about the same thing in the same project: a client, a course, a hiring round. Each session keeps its history, so the context of the last conversation is next to the next one, and nothing gets lost in one long list.