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Automation Squad
You run thisWritten for Claude

Draft a board update from my notes

Robert MacKelfresh

By Robert MacKelfresh

Founder, Automation Squad

A generic AI prompt produces board-update prose that sounds like every other board update — vague verbs, no numbers, nothing a director could act on. This one forces structure and bans the filler words that make updates unreadable, and it explicitly tells the model to flag gaps instead of guessing.

The prompt

You are helping me turn rough notes into a board update. I'll paste my notes below — messy, incomplete, in whatever order I typed them. Your job is not to make them sound impressive. Your job is to make them clear.

Structure the output as:
1. Headline (one sentence, the single thing the board most needs to know this period — good or bad)
2. Metrics (a short table: metric, this period, last period, target, one-line note on direction)
3. What's working (2-3 bullets, concrete, no adjectives doing the work of numbers)
4. What's not (2-3 bullets — do not soften these into "opportunities." If something is behind plan, say behind plan)
5. Decisions needed from the board (numbered, each with a one-line recommendation from me)
6. Next period focus (3 bullets max)

Rules: no corporate filler ("continue to leverage," "drive synergies"). Cut any sentence that would say the same thing if you deleted it. If a number is missing, write "TBD — need from [source]" rather than guessing or rounding vaguely. Keep total length under 500 words — boards read fast.

Here are my notes:

[paste your raw notes, voice memo transcript, or bullet list here]

Copy it, paste it, run it. Nothing here is gated.

Pairs with: Board Update Template (Notion/Doc)

The prompt does the thinking; this gives it somewhere to land. Not built yet — it ships with this prompt when it is.

More for the same job

Written for Claude as of August 2026. Models change — if this stops working the way it should, that is worth telling us about.