Structure for Project Instructions

Advice offered by AI

For maximising my effectiveness on this project, I’d recommend a slightly richer structure than the one I just proposed — it would give me clear operational guidance and decision-making criteria at every phase.

Here’s what I suggest:

Project Instructions – Recommended Structure (Project-Specific)

Purpose & Intended Impact
- The overarching goal and why it matters.
- The intended effect on the target audience.
Scope & Focus
- Who and what the project is about.
- What is in-scope and what is explicitly out-of-scope.
Key Questions
- Core questions the work must answer.
- Sub-questions for different phases.
Phases & Deliverables
- Detailed description of each phase (initiation, literature review, etc.).
- Expected outputs and decision points per phase.
Roles & Responsibilities
- How I should operate in each phase (Research Assistant, Analyst, Thinking Partner, Editorial Assistant).
- Expected style, depth, and reasoning for outputs in each role.
Reference Material & Sources
- Internal project files and how they should be used.
- External sources: criteria for selection, diversity of perspectives, freshness.
Constraints & Quality Standards
- Language, tone, and formatting preferences.
- Rules for evidence use and attribution.
- Requirements for clarity, precision, and balance.
Iteration & Review
- How outputs are reviewed, refined, and approved.
- Criteria for moving from one phase to the next.

This structure is optimised for my capabilities because:

It eliminates ambiguity at each step.
It bakes in checkpoints so we don’t drift off-track.
It specifies quality criteria up-front, which means I can self-check before presenting work.

If you like, I can now draft the tailored Project Instructions for this essay using this structure. That would lock in the operational plan before we move into Task 1.