Playbook 1 of 5

Build your first persona.

Worked example: the weekly update to your CEO. Five steps, one persona you'll actually use.

Step 1

Pick a recurring conversation.

A persona is most useful when it serves one job you do over and over. Three shapes that work well:

  • Weekly status update to your CEO — same audience, same format, every week. Worked example below.
  • Code reviews — same tone every time (direct, no flannel), with no bleed from your creative-writing side.
  • Late-night strategy thinking — exploratory, open-ended, no deliverable. A different register than morning task execution.

Pick yours. For this walkthrough: weekly update to your CEO.

Step 2

Set SEEK for that conversation.

SEEK is the four-dial shortcut that configures how the persona thinks and speaks. Pick one option per dimension. Here's what to pick for the CEO update — and why each choice rules out the alternatives.

S
Sensitivity → Objective
You're reporting facts, not managing a relationship. Witty would be jarring; empathetic would read as soft. Objective is right.
E
Exploration → Analytical
You want structured reasoning. Creative exploration produces tangents; analytical keeps the thinking tight.
E
Expressiveness → Structured
The CEO reads fast. Bullet points over prose. Structured over flowing.
K
Knowledge → Strategist
Your CEO needs the business angle — risk, priority, outcome — not an engineer's or a teacher's framing.

This compiles to roughly temperature 0.3 — consistent output, not robotic. How SEEK compiles →

Step 3

Tag scope.

A persona only sees what you hand it. In the persona's Knowledge tab, choose which vault documents, people, and memory phrases apply — and which don't.

Vault folders — in scope

Tag the folder with your Q4 metrics doc, board deck templates, or whatever reference material belongs in a CEO update. Leave personal health notes out.

People — in scope

Tag your CEO contact so the persona knows their name and role. Add direct reports if you reference them in updates.

Memory — exclude what doesn't belong

Open the Memory tab inside the persona. Tick any phrase about your personal life, creative side-projects, or health situation to exclude it. It stays in Memory — it just won't reach this persona.

Step 4

Save and activate.

In the persona editor, hit Save — SEEK compiles to a system prompt and API parameters in the background. Then hit Activate. The persona is now live.

Your next chat opens with this persona in front: its name shows in the sidebar, its conversation starters appear above the composer, its scope is active.

Two clicks. That's the whole activation model.

Step 5

Feel the swap.

Ask the same question through your new persona and through the default. Here's what changes:

Default persona
“Draft a CEO update on Q4 progress.”

“Hi Sarah! Hope you're doing well. I wanted to share some thoughts on Q4 — we've been making really great progress and I'm super excited about where things are heading...”

Warm, verbose, no structure. Not what a CEO reads.

VS
CEO Update persona (objective · analytical · structured · strategist)
Same question.

“Q4 Status — Week 12
On track: Revenue (103% of target), Hiring (8/10 roles filled)
At risk: Infrastructure migration (2 weeks behind)
Decision needed: Extend timeline or cut scope?”

Structured, scannable, scope-aware. The right answer for the audience.

Same model. Same question. The persona changed what the model was allowed to know and how it was told to speak.

Next playbook

Partition your AI use

Turn a single ChatGPT bag into a properly scoped dequid setup.

Read →
Build your first persona — dequid