Lesson 4 — Iterate like a professional

Learn

The first draft is the beginning of the conversation, not the end of it. Professionals do not write perfect instructions; they correct fast.

Three correction moves cover nearly everything. Name the gap: "too formal, shorter, and you forgot the price." Show the fix: rewrite one line yourself and say "like this." Ask the agent: "what information would have made that draft better?" — agents are surprisingly good at telling you what they were missing.

Then the move that separates users from operators: when a correction works, promote it. A fix you have typed twice belongs in the agent's standing instructions, so you never type it a third time. Over a few weeks this compounds into an agent that gets you — not because the model changed, but because the instructions grew.

Build

Open your agent's instructions and add a section titled "Standing corrections." Move today's fixes into it. This file is now a living document; tend it for five minutes a week.

⚡ Do

Run one task through two rounds of correction using the three moves. Promote the best correction into the agent's instructions. You have completed Prompts That Work — your agent is measurably better than it was twelve minutes ago.