ChatGPT prompt for turning know-how into an SOP

This is the prompt we use to get a process out of one person’s head. Its core rule: it interviews you one question at a time instead of asking you to write it all at once, because the steps that matter most are the ones you do without thinking. This is Playbook P5, run by the person who owns the process.

The prompt to copy

Interview me one question at a time to document how I do "{process}". Cover: trigger, steps in order, tools used, decision points and how I decide, common failure modes, how I know it's done right. Then write it as an SOP anyone competent could follow without asking me anything.

Replace the process name in curly braces, then answer the questions as they come. Do not prepare anything: the interview does the structuring, not you.

When to use it

Whenever a task can only be done by one person, and that dependency starts to cost you: time off, scaling up, a new hire to train. The person who owns the process runs it themselves, answers for ten minutes, and walks away with a procedure someone else can follow.

What you get back

1. The trigger: the signal that starts the process.
2. The steps in order, with the tools used at each one.
3. The decision points, with the rule that makes you go one way or the other.
4. The common failure modes and the “done right” test, the two things a note always leaves out.

Real example: “how Tom does it” → an SOP

Input: at Brightside Studio, an 8-person brand agency, Tom is the only one who knows how to set up a new client in the agency’s tools. He runs the prompt on “set up a new client.” An excerpt of the interview, as-is:

AI: when exactly does this process start?
Tom: when the quote is signed, not before. we create nothing before that.
AI: is there a point where you decide differently depending on the client?
Tom: yes — if the client brings their own brand guidelines, i skip the creative brief step. otherwise i keep it. never told anyone that.

Output, the SOP excerpt that matters:

Decision point, step 3: did the client provide brand guidelines?

• Yes: go straight to setting up the project space (step 5).
• No: schedule a 30-minute creative brief first (step 4), or deliverables ship with no approved frame.

Notice what the interview caught: the rule “if the client has guidelines, skip the brief” lived only in Tom’s head and was written down nowhere. A note dashed off in one go would have missed it. The SOP makes it followable by anyone, without ever pulling Tom in.

This prompt is part of the library that ships inside the kit, with Playbook P5 turning know-how into a shared procedure.