Asking well

Use your own words

No technical vocabulary is needed: describe your work as you would to a new colleague. Say what the application is for, who will use it and what it must manage. For example:

We are a 60-person construction company. I want to track our subcontractors' certificates: the social security compliance certificate, the company registration extract and the ten-year liability insurance certificate. For each subcontractor, we record the name, the company number, a contact, and for each document its expiry date. The buyers (3 people) must see at a glance what expires within 30 days.

Say who does what

Say who enters data, who only looks, and who creates colleagues' accounts. Otherwise the assistant will ask: answering in your first message shortens the exchange.

Start from a real case

The spreadsheet you use today, a sample document or a screenshot of an existing tool say more than a description. Attach them with the paperclip, “Attach files”: images, PDFs, spreadsheets, documents or ZIP archives, several at a time. You can also drop them on the message box, or paste a screenshot into it.

Only include the data that is needed: an extract is enough, and made-up names do just as well. The notice above the message box says where your messages are processed.

Answer the questions, then reread the summary

The assistant asks one question at a time, often with numbered choices: “The 2nd” is a full answer. Before each question, it sums up what it understood. Reread that summary: if a point is wrong, correct it right away, in your next answer.

Request the plan once everything is said

Once the assistant has understood, click “Request the plan”. A last detail written in the message box goes along with the request: no need to send it first. An attached file, however, is sent with “Send” before you request the plan.

Reread the plan before executing it

The plan describes in plain words what the application will do, what is left for later, then “How to check”: the tests to run once the application is built. Writing it takes a few minutes; you can close the page meanwhile.

To change the plan, write what should change, then click “Request the plan” again: only the latest plan is executed. Nothing is built until you click “Execute the plan”.

A touch-up after delivery

To adjust what was just delivered (a text, a label, the order of a list), write it, then click “Apply as a correction”: the assistant applies it directly, without a new plan. The checks are then run again before delivery, which takes a few minutes. For a larger change, send it and request a new plan.

One change per conversation

Once a change is delivered, start the next one with “New conversation”: the assistant starts afresh from the updated application, faster and at a lower cost.