Say the right first thing
A first conversation that produces something useful — instead of "hey" and a shrug.
The steps
- Give context before you give a task — Your employee knows its job but not your business. The highest-value first message is context it can keep — it goes into memory and improves every answer after:
> Here's our website: {your URL}. Read it, then tell me in 5 lines who you think our customer is and what we sell. Correct me if the site says it badly.
The reply tells you two things at once: whether it understood your business, and what your website actually communicates.
- Then give one concrete task with a visible deliverable — Not "help me with marketing." One task, one artefact, one constraint:
> Draft 3 subject lines and a 90-word first email for {audience}. Don't send anything — I want to read them here.
"Draft, don't send" is the training wheel: you see the quality before anything leaves the building.
- React like a manager, not like a search engine — The first output will be 70% right. Say what's wrong the way you'd tell a new hire — it remembers:
> Good structure, but our tone is more direct. Shorter sentences. Never use the word "solution". Redo the second one.
Corrections compound. The employee that got feedback for a week is visibly better than the one that didn't — that's the memory working.
- Ask it what it needs — The fastest way to discover what the role can do:
> What would you need from me to do your best work this week?
It will name the apps, files and decisions it's missing — which is your to-do list for the next three guides.
You should see
A first document drafted in chat, one correction applied, and the employee already knows your company.
If it didn't work
The reply is generic
You gave a generic brief. Add one real constraint — a URL, a number, a named competitor, a real customer sentence — and ask again. Specific in, specific out.
The OpenLabor Academy