Agents feel natural enough that you start treating them like coworkers. Then you forget they can’t read your nonverbal cues.

Stop saying “this” and “that” to your coding agent. It doesn’t know what you mean. Say “do the research first, then build the website.”

Then tell it who you are. “Be a systems administrator talking to a business major with Excel experience. How can I see files that live on a different computer? We use Mac.”

I reach for this every time I start something new.

1. Who can answer this? Give it a role.
2. What information solves the problem? Add constraints, context, numbers.
3. What is the goal? Not “help me”. State an outcome.

Put together:

You’re a senior engineering manager who has scaled teams from 5 to 20 people.

My team of 8 developers spends 40% of sprint time on code reviews. Today: PRs need 2 approvals, no size limits, reviews happen async.

Give me 3 process changes where AI can cut this time.

The structure does the work. The role narrows the answer, the numbers ground it, the goal points it somewhere.