01
Write a thesis, not a topic
Topics aren't talks.
Made for people in Technology
Turn a Real Production Story Into a Conference Talk Outline
30 min
Intermediate
Technology
Career outcome:
Develop a Valuable Skill
Build a CFP-ready outline from an incident or migration you actually lived.
We'll use them to write your prompt.
Completed ✓
Make Your Play
Give us the situation. We’ll build the prompt.
Generic "how we use Kubernetes" talks are invisible.
Your answers save as you type.
What you'll do
This is the plan inside your prompt. Add your details first. Then follow these steps with ChatGPT or Claude.
02
Build the three acts
Failure, diagnosis, change.
03
Run a confidentiality pass
Assume it will be recorded.
04
Write the CFP or intro paragraph
The first 80 words do the work.
Make Your Play
Turn a Real Production Story Into a Conference Talk Outline
Tell us what the prompt needs to know
Start with the questions below. Each answer personalizes the playbook and builds the prompt you’ll use at the end.
Your situation
Timeline, your role, what you can say publicly.
0/10000
CFP, internal lunch, blog.
Customer names, numbers, vendor blame.
0/10000
One behavior change.
This playbook was updated. Review your inputs before copying.
What you'll do
Check a step when you finish it.
01
Write a thesis, not a topic
Topics aren't talks.
02
Build the three acts
Failure, diagnosis, change.
03
Run a confidentiality pass
Assume it will be recorded.
04
Write the CFP or intro paragraph
The first 80 words do the work.
Fill in the fields above to generate your prompt preview.
Assembled prompt
Beginner instructions
Fill the fields with this week’s real details. Incomplete notes beat invented polish.
Run the assembled prompt, answer follow-ups with specifics, then copy the deliverable into your own doc and verify names and numbers.
Advanced instructions
Add constraints the model can’t see: politics, licensing, cash timing, union rules, or family bandwidth.
After the first pass, ask it to attack the weakest assumption in the draft.
Use this when
A CFP is due, or you need a blog post and all you have is a Slack war story.
You'll need
- The story as it happened
- Audience and length
- What legal or security will block
- What you want the listener to do Monday
You'll get
- A a talk outline with a thesis, demo boundary, and what you won't disclose you can use without rewriting it from scratch.
By the end of this playbook
You will have:
- A a talk outline with a thesis, demo boundary, and what you won't disclose you can use without rewriting it from scratch.
Examples
Progress 1 of 4