Brief your AI like you would brief a new teammate.
Start with the work, define the boundaries, and decide how you will measure value before connecting a tool.
Baseline five measures before you build
Write down today’s baseline, then compare it with a small supervised test. The goal is useful improvement, not automation for its own sake.
1 · Time recoveredManual time minus review time
2 · Output qualityEdits or corrections required
3 · Work capturedItems completed or follow-ups found
4 · Error rateMistakes and missed escalations
5 · Cost vs. valueTool cost compared with practical benefit
Your finished job description
Copy this into an approved ChatGPT or Claude workspace as the foundation, not as permission to bypass your organization’s policies.
1. Job title
Inbox Triage Assistant
2. Responsibilities
Review new messages and identify what is urgent, what needs a response, what is informational, and what may be a newsletter.
3. Access
Read-only access to an organization-approved email account. No permission to send, delete, archive, forward, or change account settings.
4. Inputs
New email messages, approved priority rules, known key relationships, deadlines, and the organization’s data-handling guidance.
5. Outputs
A daily priority brief grouped into: needs attention today, response needed, informational, possible newsletter, and uncertain. Include a one-sentence reason for every priority or uncertainty.
6. Decisions that stay with you
Final priority, relationship-sensitive judgment, the meaning or tone of a response, commitments, approvals, and every decision to send, delete, archive, or forward.
7. Off-limits data and actions
Beneficiary information, HR matters, health or legal information, donor payment details, credentials, private attachments, and any action that changes the mailbox.
8. Escalation rules
Stop and flag messages involving sensitive data, financial or legal commitments, conflict, safety, unclear intent, key relationships, or classification uncertainty.
9. Success measures
Staff time recovered; percentage of priority messages caught; number of corrections required; number of appropriate escalations; monthly tool cost compared with time and value recovered.
THE PART THIS DOES NOT DO FOR YOU
You have the words. Wiring it into real accounts, real data, and a real review habit is a different job.
Nick can help design and connect that workflow, or explore whether DevFloHQ is the right foundation for it.