Stop describing the task, describe the business: 4 context items that fixed generic AI output
Kevin_Spann · reddit · 2026-11-14
The author's AI output was 'fine but useless' for months — the problem wasn't bad prompts but describing the task while never describing the business. Before any substantial request he now documents: (1) who's actually on the team — experience, real strengths, tenure, languages; (2) non-negotiable constraints like regulatory wording limits AI doesn't know; (3) what's already been tried and dropped, so it stops resuggesting; (4) the specific optimization target, not generic 'growth'. The surprise: none of this was ever written down — using AI forced him to externalize years of implicit assumptions, and even wrong outputs were useful for revealing unstated assumptions. He asks how others maintain this context.
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