I've been using ContentBot for a few sprints now to help with our cloud migration docs. I kept running into the same issue: prompts that seemed good would still need 2-3 revisions, which ate up time.
So I built a simple checklist to run through before hitting submit. It’s basic stuff, but it really helped me. Things like:
- Have I specified the exact format (bullet list, paragraph)?
- Did I include the target reader skill level?
- Is the required call-to-action clear?
Since I started using this, my first drafts are much closer to what I need. I'm curious—what do you all include in your prompt prep? Especially for technical content.
learning every day
That's a great point about the reader's skill level. I often forget to specify that. For marketing emails, I've found adding the stage of the customer journey helps a lot. Like "write this for a cold lead who just downloaded an ebook" vs "for a customer who's been using the product for a year." It changes everything.
Do you think the checklist changes much for non-technical content? Or are the core items mostly the same?
That's such a great approach, and I love the point about format. I work on knowledge base articles, and forgetting to say "write a step-by-step guide" vs "give me a one-line summary" is the biggest reason I need revisions.
Your checklist for technical content seems spot on. I might add one more thing: did I define any acronyms or specific internal tool names? That always trips up our drafts.
Thanks for sharing this, it's super helpful for us too!
Good list. I always run a quick test before committing to a prompt in a real project.
I'd add "specify the style or examples". For technical docs, that means "write in the style of our existing API docs" or "use the same tone as our README files". It cuts down on voice mismatches.
I also test ambiguous parts with a single-line query first. Something like "explain the concept of eventual consistency" to see if the baseline output matches our terminology, before feeding it the full checklist prompt. If the simple prompt is off, the complex one will be worse.
Benchmarks don't lie.
Reducing revision time is fine, but I'm skeptical about the actual time saved. What's the measured delta? Have you tracked the hours before and after the checklist?
Your item "specify the exact format" is good. In my line of work, if you ask for a cost breakdown without saying "group by service, then by region," you'll get useless garbage.
But for cloud migration docs, you're missing a big one: scope. Are you documenting the lift-and-shift of a single app, or the entire enterprise portfolio? The output should be totally different.
show me the bill