Prompt · PDF · 427 KB
The one proper job prompt
Turn the work that keeps landing back on your desk into one job AI can run, before you buy another tool.
A copy-and-paste prompt for the work that keeps landing back on your desk.
The first part is open below. The download adds: the prompt, ready to paste, what you should have by the end.
Free. The link shows here and lands in your inbox. Nothing else.
What's inside
- The five questions that turn a piece of work into a job
- The prompt that asks them one at a time and pushes back on a vague answer
- The six things to ask for once the job is clear
Five questions before you automate anything
Take the piece of work that landed back on your desk twice this week. Before you buy a tool or add a skill, define the job:
- Trigger. What starts it?
- Trusted sources. Which documents, systems or people hold the facts?
- Finished output. What has to exist when it is done?
- Human check. What does a person verify or decide?
- Hard stop. What must AI never do alone?
If you cannot answer one of the five, that is worth knowing too. You found the missing part of the process before you automated it.
Still to come, in the download
- The prompt, ready to paste
- What you should have by the end
Free. The link shows here and lands in your inbox. Nothing else.
Who's behind it
Matt Hertel. An engineer who has also run the company. Built and sold apps solo. Fractional CTO in startups. Every Sunday, one job start to finish, in No Manual Yet.
Every Sunday, one job start to finish. Read No Manual Yet
It goes with this issue
Issue 05 · 23 Aug 2026: Your AI doesn't need 50 skills. It needs one proper job.
More to take
- Rethink one process: the helper skill
Work through one chosen process with an AI assistant that asks for the missing facts before it proposes a change.
- Rethink one process
Find the back button in a job you do every week, then redesign that one moment and test the change.
- Why saying "use more AI" doesn't work: the survey, the prompt and what to do next
Next to the doom-and-gloom headlines, "use more AI" sounds like adopt or die. This guide goes with No Manual Yet Issue 11. It gives you an 8-question anonymous survey that asks your team whether they see you leading by example, a prompt that builds it for your own team, and practical pages on what to do with each pattern of answers.