{ "collection": "Apex Instruments concierge prompt", "version": "1.0", "published": "2026-10-01", "note": "Fictional sample data for a portfolio demonstration. Apex Instruments, Northlight Group, Meridian and Atlas Care do not exist. Nothing here describes a real company, product or service.", "intro": "In production this is a prompt. Somebody who has just been set up says hello, and instead of a blank box they get three questions. At the end of the third they have one named task, the tool that does it, and the list of facts they will need in hand. It is deliberately a small tree rather than a clever one, because the failure it is fixing is a person staring at an empty window.", "start": "start", "depth": 3, "nodes": [ { "id": "start", "kind": "question", "ask": "What is actually in front of you right now?", "why": "Not what you would like to try. What is on your list for today.", "options": [ { "label": "A blank page. Something has to be written.", "next": "produce" }, { "label": "A question, or a draft I am not sure about.", "next": "check" }, { "label": "Nothing of my own. I am setting this up for other people.", "next": "setup" } ] }, { "id": "produce", "kind": "question", "ask": "Who reads it when it is finished?", "why": "This decides the template, the tone, and how many people have to see it before it leaves.", "options": [ { "label": "Somebody outside the company", "next": "produce-outside" }, { "label": "Somebody inside the company", "next": "produce-inside" } ] }, { "id": "produce-outside", "kind": "question", "ask": "Has something like it been sent before?", "why": "If it has, you are editing. If it has not, you are deciding what the piece is, which is a different job.", "options": [ { "label": "Yes, we send one of these fairly often", "next": "t-partner-letter" }, { "label": "No, this one is new", "next": "t-new-piece" } ] }, { "id": "produce-inside", "kind": "question", "ask": "Is it a decision or an update?", "why": "A decision has to be findable in a year. An update only has to be read this week.", "options": [ { "label": "A decision that needs to be on the record", "next": "t-decision-note" }, { "label": "An update people need this week", "next": "t-status-update" } ] }, { "id": "check", "kind": "question", "ask": "Are you looking for something, or checking something you already have?", "why": "Finding and checking use different tools, and people reach for the wrong one about half the time.", "options": [ { "label": "Looking for something", "next": "check-find" }, { "label": "Checking something I already have", "next": "check-verify" } ] }, { "id": "check-find", "kind": "question", "ask": "A document you have seen before, or a fact you are unsure of?", "why": "One is a search. The other is a question with an owner attached.", "options": [ { "label": "A document. I know it exists.", "next": "t-find-file" }, { "label": "A fact. I am not sure what the answer is.", "next": "t-ask-facts" } ] }, { "id": "check-verify", "kind": "question", "ask": "Are you checking the words or the numbers?", "why": "Numbers get proved against a file. Words get read against the voice rules and the facts.", "options": [ { "label": "The words: tone, claims, whether it is safe to send", "next": "t-proof" }, { "label": "The numbers: prices, counts, figures on a page", "next": "t-price-check" } ] }, { "id": "setup", "kind": "question", "ask": "Are you setting up a person, or a job that repeats?", "why": "People need fifteen minutes and a real first task. Jobs need an owner and a trigger.", "options": [ { "label": "A person", "next": "setup-person" }, { "label": "A job that repeats", "next": "setup-job" } ] }, { "id": "setup-person", "kind": "question", "ask": "New to the company, or already here?", "why": "A new starter has no habits to displace. Somebody who has been here two years has plenty.", "options": [ { "label": "Brand new, started this week", "next": "t-setup-teammate" }, { "label": "Already here, has been avoiding it", "next": "t-adopt-session" } ] }, { "id": "setup-job", "kind": "question", "ask": "Does it run on a clock, or when something changes?", "why": "A clock job can be scheduled and forgotten. A change job needs something to watch.", "options": [ { "label": "On a clock, weekly or monthly", "next": "t-weekly-routine" }, { "label": "When something changes", "next": "t-trigger-routine" } ] }, { "id": "t-partner-letter", "kind": "task", "title": "The Northlight Group renewal letter, one site", "task": "Take last year's letter to one Northlight site, and produce this year's, changing only what actually changed.", "why": "It is the piece your team writes most often, so the template is mature and the first attempt is very likely to be usable. That matters more on day one than picking the most interesting task.", "tool": { "kind": "template", "name": "Partner letter, v3", "where": "templates/partner-letter" }, "need": [ "The site name and how many instruments are on it", "The Atlas plan that site is on today", "The date the current term ends", "Last year's letter to the same site", "The name of the person who signs it" ], "firstMove": "Open the template beside last year's letter and ask for the differences only, not a fresh draft. A fresh draft loses the sentences the partner has come to expect.", "minutes": 12, "done": "One letter, addressed to a named person, where every figure can be pointed back at the price sheet." }, { "id": "t-new-piece", "kind": "task", "title": "A one page brief for something nobody here has written before", "task": "Decide what the piece actually is, in one sentence, then produce a one page draft against that sentence.", "why": "New pieces go wrong at the start, not at the draft. Spending the first four minutes on the one sentence saves the afternoon.", "tool": { "kind": "skill", "name": "The drafter", "where": "skills/draft" }, "need": [ "Who reads it and what you want them to do after reading it", "The two or three facts it cannot be wrong about", "One existing piece whose shape you like, even from a different subject", "The name of the person who will approve it" ], "firstMove": "Write the one sentence yourself before you open anything: this piece exists so that can . Hand that sentence over first and ask whether it is a brief or something else.", "minutes": 20, "done": "One page, one reader, one action, and an owner who has agreed to review it." }, { "id": "t-decision-note", "kind": "task", "title": "Write up the decision from this morning while people still remember it", "task": "Turn the decision that was made into four lines: what was decided, who decided it, what was ruled out, and what happens next.", "why": "This is the cheapest task in the system and the one with the longest tail. In eleven months somebody will need exactly this and there will be nothing.", "tool": { "kind": "template", "name": "Decision note", "where": "templates/decision-note" }, "need": [ "What was decided, in one sentence", "The name of the person who decided it", "The option that was ruled out and the reason given at the time", "The date" ], "firstMove": "Paste your own rough notes in and ask for the four lines. Do not tidy your notes first, the mess is the input.", "minutes": 8, "done": "Four lines in the decisions folder, with a name and a date, findable by anyone." }, { "id": "t-status-update", "kind": "task", "title": "This week's update to the team, from what actually happened", "task": "Turn the week's activity into an update people will read: what moved, what is stuck, what needs somebody else.", "why": "It is a task you already do badly on a Friday afternoon, which makes it a fair first test. If the draft is better than your usual Friday, you have learned something.", "tool": { "kind": "template", "name": "Weekly update", "where": "templates/weekly-update" }, "need": [ "Your own list of what happened this week", "The two or three things that are stuck and who is holding them", "Anything you need from another team, with a date attached" ], "firstMove": "Give it the raw list first and ask which items a reader would not care about. Cut those before drafting anything.", "minutes": 10, "done": "An update short enough that people reach the end of it, with every ask attached to a name and a date." }, { "id": "t-find-file", "kind": "task", "title": "Find the document you know exists and cannot put your hand on", "task": "Describe what was in the document rather than what it was called, and let the search work on the contents.", "why": "Everyone has one of these. Finding it in forty seconds is the demonstration that changes people's minds faster than any explanation.", "tool": { "kind": "skill", "name": "Find anything", "where": "skills/find" }, "need": [ "Roughly when you last saw it, to the season is enough", "One phrase you are fairly sure was in it", "Who probably wrote it" ], "firstMove": "Do not guess the file name. Describe a sentence you remember being in it, and say roughly when.", "minutes": 5, "done": "The document open in front of you, and its folder noted so the next person does not repeat the search." }, { "id": "t-ask-facts", "kind": "task", "title": "Ask the one question about our own plans you have been guessing at", "task": "Ask the approved facts a question you have been answering from memory, and compare the answer with what you have been telling people.", "why": "Most people are carrying two or three facts that were true eighteen months ago. Finding one of yours on the first day is more persuasive than being told the system is accurate.", "tool": { "kind": "skill", "name": "The librarian", "where": "skills/facts" }, "need": [ "The question, phrased the way a partner would ask it", "What you currently believe the answer is", "The name of the area owner, in case the answer has no source" ], "firstMove": "Ask the question, then ask a second time for the file it came from and when that file was last checked. Both answers matter.", "minutes": 6, "done": "Either your memory confirmed with a source line, or one fact corrected and a note sent to its owner." }, { "id": "t-proof", "kind": "task", "title": "Proof the draft sitting in your review folder", "task": "Run the draft against the facts and the voice rules before a person reads it, and fix what comes back.", "why": "It takes four minutes and it removes the two or three things a reviewer would otherwise spend their whole pass on. Reviewers notice within a fortnight.", "tool": { "kind": "checklist", "name": "The proofer", "where": "skills/proof" }, "need": [ "The draft itself, as a file rather than pasted text", "The price sheet or fact file the figures came from", "The voice rules, one page, in the shared folder" ], "firstMove": "Ask for findings only, with the line number against each. Do not ask it to rewrite the piece in the same breath.", "minutes": 9, "done": "A findings list you have worked through, and a draft you are willing to put your name on." }, { "id": "t-price-check", "kind": "task", "title": "Prove every figure on one page against the price sheet", "task": "Take one page that carries prices and check each figure against the effective price file, line by line.", "why": "A wrong price on a partner page is the mistake that costs money and trust at the same time, and it is the check people most often do by eye.", "tool": { "kind": "skill", "name": "The price proofer", "where": "skills/pricecheck" }, "need": [ "The page or sheet being checked", "The price file and its effective date", "Which plan or partner terms apply to this page" ], "firstMove": "Ask for a per line verdict, not a summary. A summary that says mostly correct is not an answer you can act on.", "minutes": 11, "done": "Every figure marked as matching or flagged, with the flagged ones listed for a person to decide on." }, { "id": "t-setup-teammate", "kind": "task", "title": "Run one new starter through the fifteen minute path", "task": "Sit with one person who started this week and take them through the seven steps, without doing any of it for them.", "why": "The path only works if it is used on a real question of theirs. Watching one person do it also shows you which step is written badly.", "tool": { "kind": "checklist", "name": "New teammate path", "where": "onboarding/new-teammate" }, "need": [ "Their workspace account, already created", "One real question from their own week, agreed before you sit down", "Fifteen minutes with no meeting inside them" ], "firstMove": "Ask them for their real question before you open anything. If they do not have one, stop and come back tomorrow with one.", "minutes": 15, "done": "Their answer saved in their own work zone, and one step of the path you now know needs rewording." }, { "id": "t-adopt-session", "kind": "task", "title": "Sit with the colleague who has been avoiding it, on their own worst task", "task": "Pick the task they complain about most and do that one task together, once, with them driving.", "why": "People who have been here for years do not need the tour. They need one hour of their week back, on the specific thing they resent.", "tool": { "kind": "checklist", "name": "Adopting it, the reading path", "where": "onboarding/adopting" }, "need": [ "The task they complain about, named by them rather than by you", "The files that task normally uses", "Their approval route, so the output can actually be used" ], "firstMove": "Ask what took them longest last week. Use that. Do not substitute a task you think demonstrates the system better.", "minutes": 30, "done": "One real piece of their work finished, by them, and a second one they have chosen for next week." }, { "id": "t-weekly-routine", "kind": "task", "title": "Set up the Monday freshness sweep", "task": "Once a week, list every approved fact past its review date, group the list by owner, and send each owner only their own lines.", "why": "It is the smallest routine that keeps the whole library honest, and it fails safe: the worst case is somebody gets a list they ignore.", "tool": { "kind": "routine", "name": "Weekly freshness sweep", "where": "routines/freshness" }, "need": [ "The facts file with a review period on each entry", "The owner names, as people rather than teams", "A day and a time nobody objects to", "One person who owns the routine when it breaks" ], "firstMove": "Run it once by hand and read the output yourself before it is scheduled. A routine that sends a bad list on week one does not get read on week two.", "minutes": 25, "done": "The sweep scheduled, the first list sent, and a named owner for the morning it fails." }, { "id": "t-trigger-routine", "kind": "task", "title": "Set up the alert for when a price file changes", "task": "When the effective price file is replaced, list every published page that quotes a figure from it and send that list to the person who owns those pages.", "why": "The gap between a price changing and the pages catching up is where the expensive mistakes live, and it is invisible until a partner finds it.", "tool": { "kind": "routine", "name": "Change triggered check", "where": "routines/on-change" }, "need": [ "Which file counts as the price file, exactly one", "The list of pages that quote prices from it", "The person who owns those pages", "What should happen if nobody acts within two working days" ], "firstMove": "Write down what should happen when nobody responds, before you build anything. A trigger with no timeout path quietly stops mattering.", "minutes": 35, "done": "The trigger running, one test change put through it, and a written timeout path." } ] }