TURN A FIX YOU DID ONCE INTO A PLAYBOOK.
You solved this problem last month.
It took a few hours, a couple of conversations, and some trial and error.
Eventually, you figured out what worked.
Then… It happened again.
Same kind of problem. Third time now.
You remember solving it before. You remember the general approach.
But the exact steps? The checks you made? The thing that finally worked?
Somewhere between the finished project and today, those details disappeared.
So you start from scratch…again.
LET’S FIX THAT IN 15 MINUTES.
STEP 1 — REBUILD WHAT YOU DID
🔴🟡🟢 COPY THIS INTO CHATGPT OR YOUR AI TOOL:
Act as my process documentation partner.
Help me turn a work task I’ve completed into a repeatable process.
Ask me questions one at a time until you understand:
What problem I was solving.
What information or materials I needed.
What steps I took, in order.
What decisions I made along the way.
What I checked before calling the work complete.
What went wrong or needed adjustment.
What I would do differently next time.
Rules:
Do not invent steps or fill gaps with assumptions.
If I can’t remember something, mark it [NEEDS CONFIRMATION].
Separate what I actually did from what you suggest might improve the process.
Keep questions specific and easy to answer.
Don’t move on until the important steps are clear.
When the important steps are clear, summarize what I told you in order and list anything marked [NEEDS CONFIRMATION].
The task I want to document:
[Describe the task and the problem you solved.]
Answer the questions as best you can.
Review the result. Does it reflect what actually happened, or has AI filled in gaps with steps that sound reasonable?
Correct anything that doesn’t match your experience.
AI can help you organize what you remember. It cannot recover details you never provide.
STEP 2 — WRITE THE PLAYBOOK
Now turn those details into instructions someone can actually use.
Keep it short enough to use while doing the work.
If a step depends on information you haven’t confirmed, mark it.
Don’t let AI turn a gap in your memory into a confident-sounding instruction.
STEP 3 — TEST IT ON A FRESH PROBLEM
Of course it does. They already know how the work gets done.
The real test is whether someone can follow the instructions without relying on the writer’s memory.
Ask AI to act as a first-time user and walk through the process using a similar example.
🔴🟡🟢 COPY THIS INTO CHATGPT OR YOUR AI TOOL:
Act as a first-time user testing this playbook.
Walk through the instructions using the example below.
At each step, identify:
What I would need to know or do.
Any instruction that is unclear.
Any missing information or decision.
Any point where I would need to stop and ask for help.
Whether the stated completion criteria can actually be checked.
Rules:
Do not silently fill gaps or assume I know what the writer meant.
Do not invent missing steps.
Identify exactly where the process breaks down.
Keep the review concise and practical.
Playbook:
[Paste the playbook.]
Example of a similar task:
[Describe a new example.]
Review the result.
Fix the important gaps. If the playbook only works because the person testing it already knows the process, it isn’t ready yet.
Save the finished first version as Playbook v1.
The full prompt sequence is in today’s Field Kit.
WATCH FOR THIS PHRASE:
“I’ll remember how I did it.”
Maybe you will.
But remembering the general idea isn’t the same as remembering the steps, checks, and decisions that made it work.
You don’t need to document every task you perform. Start with the work you keep repeating.
The goal is to make the next attempt easier than the last.
SEND IT
Once you’ve tested the playbook:
Fix the gaps the test exposed.
Confirm that the instructions match the process you actually used.
Save it somewhere you or your team can find it again.
Give it a clear name: [Task Name] — The Playbook v1.
Don’t aim for a perfect manual.
Aim for a process someone can follow without starting from scratch.
HOW DID IT GO?
Did you use the workflow?
WHAT YOU JUST DID
You took a fix that depended on memory and turned it into something you can reuse.
That’s how experience starts becoming a system.
AI helped you organize the steps and test the instructions. You still had to confirm what actually worked and fix what didn’t.
Before you grab today’s Field Kit:
Tell us about your role and what you’re working on so we can build workflows around the problems you’re actually dealing with.
You’ve written the playbook.
The steps make sense.
You’ve tested them.
You save the document and move on.
A month later, someone runs into the same problem.
They don’t know the playbook exists.
Or they find it, follow the steps, and discover that part of the process has changed.
The work was documented. The problem still came back.
Thursday, we’ll look at why good fixes disappear - and what makes a playbook useful after the day it’s written.
TODAY’S FIELD KIT (THE PLAYBOOK)
Inside the kit:
The Playbook prompt sequence
A reusable playbook template
A “does this actually work?” test
This kit lives in our learning community. Sign up free to get access.
