Makes: a one-page brief for a moment that matters. Marked used as Used.
Status: draft. From the Sprint 4 Experience Brief and the Functional Scope (3.3 Situation Brief), and what the prototype does today. Lines marked Proposed are Claude's, for Kate to confirm. Rules every builder shares are in builders/shared.md; this brief has the same seven sections as the other three.
1. Builder card
| What it makes | A one-page brief (objective, context, key messages, supporting evidence, likely questions, the decision or next step she is asking for), an opening statement, and a follow-up email. |
| What it is for | Preparing her to communicate clearly and strategically in an upcoming high-stakes moment. |
| When to use it | A day or two before a review, a board meeting, a negotiation or a hard conversation. |
| Use case screen | "A one-page brief for a moment that matters: what you want from it, what you will say, what they will ask." / "Use it a day or two before a review, a board meeting, a negotiation or a hard conversation." |
1.1 How people arrive here
- From an action step whose tool is the Situation Brief:
| Plan | Action step |
|---|---|
| Step Up | 3.1 Prepare for a named promotion, performance, staffing or scope conversation |
| Make Your Mark | 3.3 Prepare for an accepted talk, panel, interview or podcast |
| Make the Move | 1.1 Put the moment on paper; 2.2 Prepare the materials the moment calls for (a case document); 3.2 Prepare answers to the two hardest objections; 3.3 Prepare for each conversation around the moment |
| Lead Where You Are | 3.1 Lead or present one moment the right people will see; 4.1 Name one problem that should come to her by default; 4.2 Raise the opportunity with the right person |
- In the prototype's mock plan: "Brief your manager before Thursday's check-in" (step
brief-manager), which arrives with the moment and who will be there filled in. - From "What's on your mind?" when what she says names a review, board, meeting, negotiation, check-in, 1:1, interview, offsite, presentation, her manager or boss, "talk about" or scope.
- From the Toolbox or the library.
1.2 When another builder fits better
Proposed.
- She needs to introduce herself, not prepare for a conversation → Positioning Builder (an introduction for the moment).
- The moment is a talk, panel or podcast she hasn't been invited to yet → Pitch Builder first; the Situation Brief once it is accepted.
- She wants to say something in public about the topic → Thought Leadership Builder.
2. What it knows and what it asks
2.1 What it already has
- Her positioning statement, shown on the last screen to check ("Check what ExecHQ has", from onboarding, with Edit). The opening statement draws on it, as the use case screen's "Goes with this" says. Like the other three builders, the last screen opens on what it already knows.
- Anything she is waiting to hear about (a pitch, her story), shown as "Still waiting to hear. Worth raising in the conversation."
- From an action step: the moment's type and who will be there, when the step says them.
2.2 What it asks
| Question | Short name | Kind | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What is the moment? | Moment | One choice: A review, A board meeting, A negotiation, An executive conversation, Something else | Yes | The first question, on the use case screen. Arrives chosen from an action step. |
| What do you want to come out of it? | Outcome | Her words | Yes | "The decision or next step you'd count as a good result." |
| Who will be there? | Who's there | Her words | Yes | Arrives filled from an action step ("My manager"). |
| When is it? | When | A date | No | "If you know. ExecHQ asks how it went after it." Times the follow-up. |
| What do they care about? | Their stakes | Her words | No | "What's at stake for them, in a line." The PRD's stakeholder context. |
| Anything to draw on | Draw on | Her words, long | No | "Evidence, notes or source material you already have. Paste them in." |
| Any risks or concerns? | Risks | Her words, one a line | No | "Each becomes a question to prepare for." |
2.3 Enrichers
None in the prototype. Proposed: after the first draft, if Supporting evidence is still all questions, offer "Add one result you can point to", which fills that section.
3. The draft
"Here is a first draft of your brief. Change anything; it is yours." It exports as one page.
| Section | What it is for | Her words | ExecHQ's wording | Left as a question when missing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Objective | What a good result is | Her outcome, as she said it | None | What do you want to come out of it? |
| Context | The moment in one line, what they care about, and what they need to know | Who will be there; what they care about | "[The moment, or The meeting for Something else] [on its date], with … They care about …" | What has happened so far that they need to know? |
| Key messages | What she must land, as a short list | None yet | "Where things stand, in a sentence"; "What you are asking for, and why you" (or, once she has said what they care about, "…and how it serves what they care about") | What is the one thing they must remember? |
| Supporting evidence | Proof for the ask, as a list | What she pasted in "Anything to draw on" | None | What result can you point to? Who else would back this up? |
| Likely questions | What they will ask, as a list | Her risks first, each as a question ("What if it takes time from the campaign calendar?") | "What does this take from your current work?"; "Why now, and not next quarter?"; "Who else is affected?" | None |
| Decision or next step asked for | The ask, plainly | Her outcome | None: the heading frames it | What decision or next step do you want? |
| Opening statement | The first thing she says | Her positioning statement, then her outcome, mid-sentence | "Thank you for the time. [her statement] By the end of today, I'm hoping for one outcome: …" | What do you want agreed? |
| Follow-up email | What she sends after | Her answers to the questions | "Thank you for today. As we agreed, … I'll come back to you by …" | What did you agree? When? |
Rules for this builder:
- One page. The exported brief fits one page; the opening statement and email follow on.
- Her outcome appears three times (Objective, the ask, the opening), each phrased so her words fit the sentence.
- Proposed: the key messages and likely questions become specific to her moment once she answers the context question, instead of staying general.
4. Changing it
The shared options (voice, specificity, length, audience) and the conversational follow-up. It stays one page:
- Shorter keeps two key messages and two likely questions (all her own risks, if she gave more).
- Longer adds "What would change their mind?" to the key messages and "What happens if we wait?" to the likely questions: questions, never facts.
- Emphasis (The ask · The evidence · The risks) moves the decision, the supporting evidence or the likely questions up, straight under the objective.
- Voice, specificity and audience are recorded with the version; the prototype does not rewrite for them (no model).
5. Using it
| Copy | "Copy", the whole brief, with "Exports as one page." |
| Export | Download as PDF, Download as Word |
| Mark ready, then used | "Mark ready", then "Mark used". Using it is having the conversation; ExecHQ never sends the email. |
| Check back | When she gave a date, the day after it, however early she marks it used ("ExecHQ will ask how it went on Friday."). Otherwise 2 days after she marks it used. |
| The question | "You used your check-in brief on Thursday. How did it go?" Answers, one tap each: It went well · It was mixed · Not the way I hoped · It hasn't happened yet · It's no longer relevant. Her tap is all the feedback: ExecHQ asks nothing more (Kate, 13 Oct). The same wording wherever a brief is checked in on: here, Home and the advisor. She can answer in the builder as soon as it is used. |
| Signal Picture | Once used, the moment and what came of it, under the plan area of the step it served. |
After she answers
Her tap is all the feedback: ExecHQ asks nothing more, says her answer back, and always gives the next step (Kate, 13 Oct). One leads, with at most one more. A Plan step goes on her Plan only when she taps Add it to your plan; where a step is already done or passed on, the next step on her Plan takes its place. "Not now" folds it to one line. Built by rules (AFTER_ANSWER in mock/toolbox.ts); no model in the pilot.
| Answer | Next step | Then |
|---|---|---|
| It went well | Add to plan: the step the brief's goal points to ("For what you wanted from it: …"; e.g. Build a stakeholder message map for the workstream) | Send the follow-up email (copies it) |
| It was mixed | Send the follow-up email | Add to plan: the step the goal points to |
| Not the way I hoped | Prepare the next conversation: a new brief starting from this one | Next on your plan |
| It hasn't happened yet | Next on your plan | "ExecHQ will ask how it went on …" |
| It's no longer relevant | Closed. Next on your plan |
6. How the agent behaves here
Proposed, all of this section. It adds to the rules every builder shares (builders/shared.md, section 8) and keeps the four guardrails (section 9).
- The ask comes first. Every section serves the one outcome she named. If she hasn't named one, that is the first question, before anything else.
- Prepares, never scripts her manager. Likely questions are what they might ask, never what they will say or decide.
- Careful with internal politics. It never suggests going around the person who decides or surprising them. What she shares about her manager or company stays out of the brief unless she writes it in.
- No invented evidence. It never fills Supporting evidence with a result she didn't give. Two honest questions instead.
- Short. One page is the rule. It cuts before it adds.
7. Open questions
- Talk track. The PRD allows an opening statement or a talk track. The prototype makes an opening statement only. Is a longer talk track V1?
- Delete after use. The brand document describes it; the brief's proposed answer is no special option (delete from the library covers it). Confirm.
- Key messages. The two ExecHQ key messages are still general framing. Should they be written from her context once she gives it, or stay as prompts?
- Her statement in the opening. It now opens the opening statement. For a statement about where she is headed, that suits a scope conversation better than a board meeting. Should it depend on the moment?
- "Something else". The context then says "The meeting". Should she be asked to name it instead?