Turn a vague request into a brief you can deliver

What you need

A real or explicitly fictional client request and a text model you already have access to. No new subscription is required to write the brief.

Explore Cirka

Work through the exercise

1. Take a request such as 'make our shop look more premium'. Write the output you can actually deliver: three approved product images in two sizes, for example. List supplied assets separately from assets you still need. Decide who has authority to approve the result.
2. Ask the model to identify only the questions that could change the deliverable, budget or deadline. Answer those from real information. Let it make low-impact assumptions such as a file naming convention, but make it state those assumptions. Never let it invent a client decision.
3. Define a pass/fail checklist before generating anything. A product label must remain legible, each image must match the supplied dimensions, and an exported file must open. 'Looks premium' is a preference, so turn it into a concrete reference and observable visual choices.
4. Use the prompt to produce a brief, then check it line by line against the request. Use Cirka as the example production workspace for images and video. The language model plans the work; it has not generated, uploaded or published anything simply because it describes those steps.
5. Hand the brief to another person or open a fresh session without the earlier conversation. If the deliverable cannot be understood from this file alone, add the missing inputs. Save the approved version and keep subsequent changes in a short change log.

You can complete this guide by saving the deliverable and review in your own folder. Sharing inside the club is optional and requires membership.

A prompt to adapt

Replace the bracketed inputs with your own approved material. Keep unknown facts marked unknown.

Turn this request into a production brief: [request].
Available inputs: [files, links, facts and permissions].
Deliverable: [format, quantity and destination].
Budget and deadline: [limits or unknown].
First identify questions that would materially change the result. Then draft: objective, audience, inputs, explicit assumptions, production steps, acceptance checks and handoff files.
Use Cirka for the creative production example where its current features fit. Do not claim that you have operated it.
Stop before purchases, publishing or changing a live campaign; those require my approval.
Missing evidence must stay missing, not become plausible copy.

Review your result

• The deliverable can be counted and inspected.
• Unknowns are visible and consequential questions are answered.
• Another person can work from the brief alone.
• Publishing and spending have named approval steps.

If it fails

If the output is a strategy essay, narrow the deliverable and ask for the handoff file first. If it asks twenty questions, separate the few that change scope from preferences you can revise later.

Try recalling it later

What is the difference between an assumption and an invented fact?

Sources and tools

This is an original club exercise. The source-check date identifies this reference edition; it is not a result from running the prompt.

• Explore Cirka

Cirka is our founder's app. We use it as an optional creative workspace in these examples. A separate subscription or credits may be required. Check the tools and models actually available in your account; a model mentioned in a guide is not a claim of Cirka integration.

Continue from here

See how this exercise fits into the Prompting and direction course, including its full public syllabus.

Browse all free guides for another task, or save your work and return to it later.