Using AI to Plan a Project¶
Audience: All team members Prerequisite: None Time to read: 10 minutes Time to apply: 10 minutes
Why This Page Exists¶
You've been asked to "put together a project plan." You open AI, type the request, and out comes a 5,000-word essay nobody reads. This page fixes that — for good.
By the end, you'll know:
- What a project plan actually is (it's smaller than you think)
- How to ask AI for one and get back a usable, one-page document
- How to turn that one page into a Gantt chart you can screenshot and share
You'll have two prompts you can copy, fill in, and reuse forever.
What a Project Plan Is¶
A project plan is a short, one-page document that turns an idea into a clear path of action.
The word document tricks people. The moment we hear "go and write a project plan," we picture a giant Word file — twenty pages, headings, sub-headings, an introduction, a conclusion. That's not a project plan. That's homework.
A project plan is closer to a menu than a book. A menu fits on one page. You can read it in 30 seconds. Nobody opens a menu and finds an introduction explaining the history of food.
If your project plan is more than one page, you've written the wrong thing.
It might be a great essay. It might be an excellent strategy paper. But it is not a project plan, and the team won't read it.
A good project plan has three qualities:
| Quality | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Short | One page. |
| Specific | Real names, real dates, real numbers — not "we will engage stakeholders." |
| Shared | Everyone has seen it and agreed before work begins. |
The Four Questions a Plan Answers¶
A good plan fits on one page and answers four questions — and only four:
- What are we trying to achieve? (the goal)
- How will we get there? (the phases or steps)
- Who is doing what, and by when? (owners and timeline)
- What could go wrong, and what's our backup? (risks)
If your plan answers those four things clearly, it's a good plan. If it doesn't — it doesn't matter how long or how polished it is.
Why the Prompt Matters More Than the AI¶
Most people think the quality of what AI gives you depends on the AI. "ChatGPT is better than Gemini." "Claude is smarter." People argue about it like football teams.
That's mostly wrong.
The 10/90 rule
The AI you use matters maybe 10%. The way you ask — the prompt — matters 90%.
The same AI, on the same day, will give one person a brilliant one-page plan and give the next person a 5,000-word essay. The AI didn't change. The prompt changed.
Think of AI as a taxi driver in Nairobi. If you say "take me somewhere nice," you'll waste an hour and end up annoyed. If you say "take me to Two Rivers Mall, fastest route, before 5pm," you arrive. Same driver, same car, same city — completely different trip.
When something comes back from AI that isn't useful, the first place to look is never the AI. It's always the prompt.
Four Prompts That Always Fail¶
Avoid these — they're the most common ways to get an essay instead of a plan.
| Bad prompt | Why it fails |
|---|---|
| "Write a project plan for X." | No format, no length, no context → essay. |
| "Give me everything I need to launch X." | "Everything" = AI dumps every framework it knows. |
| "Make it detailed." | "Detailed" has no upper bound — always use a number. |
| Pasting a vague Slack message and asking "make this a plan." | Garbage in → garbage out. |
The pattern: every one of these is missing structure and limits. The AI has no choice but to guess — and it always guesses longer.
The Fix: Five Things Every Good Prompt Has¶
Remember RTCFC:
| Letter | Stands for | Example |
|---|---|---|
| R | Role | "Act as a project manager…" |
| T | Task | "…create a short project plan…" |
| C | Context | "…for launching two-wheelers in Nairobi." |
| F | Format | "…in a table, with these sections…" |
| C | Constraints | "…under 400 words. Ask before guessing." |
If any one of these is missing, you'll get an essay. The two most-skipped are Format and Constraints.
The Two Magic Lines¶
If you forget everything else on this page, remember these two lines. Add them to any AI request — not just project plans:
Quote
- "Under [N] words."
- "Ask me up to 3 questions before writing if anything is unclear."
The second line is the secret weapon. Instead of guessing, the AI will pause and ask you things like "What's the timeline?" or "Who's the customer?" That alone makes the output ten times better — because you've now thought it through too.
The Project Plan Template¶
Copy this. Replace the [brackets] with your details. Don't delete the structure.
Act as a project manager. Create a short project plan for:
PROJECT: [name + one-sentence goal]
CONTEXT: [2 sentences — why now, who it's for]
TIMELINE: [e.g. 6 weeks]
TEAM: [who's involved]
Format (do not add extra sections):
1. Goal & success metric (2 bullets)
2. Phases — table: Phase | Duration | Deliverable | Owner (max 5 rows)
3. Top 3 risks — table: Risk | Mitigation
4. Next 3 steps for this week
Rules:
- Under 400 words total.
- Ask me up to 3 questions before writing if anything is unclear.
- Do not invent dates, names, or budgets.
Worked Example — Two-Wheeler Launch in Kenya¶
Here's the same template filled in for a real project:
Act as a project manager. Create a short project plan for:
PROJECT: Two-wheeler launch in Kenya — get our first 100 electric
two-wheelers on the road with paying riders.
CONTEXT: OVES is expanding from Togo into Kenya. Boda boda riders
in Nairobi are our first target customers. Battery-swap stations
already exist in two locations.
TIMELINE: 12 weeks, starting in May.
TEAM: 1 country lead, 2 sales reps, 1 operations lead, 1 technician.
Format (do not add extra sections):
1. Goal & success metric (2 bullets)
2. Phases — table: Phase | Duration | Deliverable | Owner (max 5 rows)
3. Top 3 risks — table: Risk | Mitigation
4. Next 3 steps for this week
Rules:
- Under 400 words total.
- Ask me up to 3 questions before writing if anything is unclear.
- Do not invent dates, names, or budgets.
The AI will likely come back with 2–3 clarifying questions before producing the plan — answer them, and you'll get a tight, one-page document you can take into a meeting that day.
What a Gantt Chart Is¶
People don't absorb dates and durations from a list. They absorb them from a picture. A Gantt chart is the picture every project manager in the world uses.
Imagine a calendar laid out left to right — May, June, July across the top. Now imagine each task in your plan as a horizontal bar sitting underneath. The bar starts on the day the task begins and ends on the day it finishes.
- Long task = long bar.
- Short task = short bar.
- Bars side-by-side = things happening at the same time.
- Bars one after another = one task must finish before the next begins.
That's it. A calendar across the top, bars across the middle. One look — and you can see the whole project: what starts when, what ends when, what overlaps, who's busy at the same time.
Think of it like the timetable on the wall at school — except instead of subjects in rows and days in columns, it's tasks in rows and weeks in columns.
Example¶
Here's what a Gantt chart for the two-wheeler launch looks like:
gantt
title Two-Wheeler Launch in Kenya
dateFormat YYYY-MM-DD
section Pre-launch
Regulatory approvals :a1, 2026-05-01, 14d
Stock import & clearance :a2, after a1, 10d
section Pilot
Recruit 10 boda riders :b1, after a2, 7d
2-week pilot run :b2, after b1, 14d
section Soft launch
Onboard first 30 riders :c1, after b2, 14d
Open 2 swap stations :c2, after b2, 10d
section Scale-up
Onboard riders 31–100 :d1, after c1, 14d
section Review
Pilot review & next steps :e1, after d1, 7dOne image. The whole project. Every phase, every task, every dependency.
The Gantt Chart Prompt¶
Once you have your project plan, ask AI for the chart in the same conversation — it already knows the project. Copy this prompt, replace the brackets, and submit.
Now draw a Gantt chart of the plan above and show it to me as a
finished visual image, here in the chat.
I do NOT want code, syntax, or text I have to paste somewhere else.
I want the actual chart — ready to screenshot.
Rules for the chart:
- Project start date: [YYYY-MM-DD]
- Total duration: [N] weeks (must match the plan)
- Calendar months along the top
- Each phase from the plan is a section
- Break each phase into 2–4 specific tasks with realistic durations
- Each task is a horizontal bar, labelled with the task name
- Use a different colour for each phase
- Show dependencies where one task must finish before another starts
- Title the chart: "[Project name]"
Worked Example — Two-Wheeler Launch in Kenya¶
Here's the same Gantt prompt, filled in for our running example. Paste this immediately after the plan in the same chat:
Now draw a Gantt chart of the plan above and show it to me as a
finished visual image, here in the chat.
I do NOT want code, syntax, or text I have to paste somewhere else.
I want the actual chart — ready to screenshot.
Rules for the chart:
- Project start date: 2026-05-01
- Total duration: 12 weeks (must match the plan)
- Calendar months along the top
- Each phase from the plan is a section
- Break each phase into 2–4 specific tasks with realistic durations
- Each task is a horizontal bar, labelled with the task name
- Use a different colour for each phase
- Show dependencies where one task must finish before another starts
- Title the chart: "Two-Wheeler Launch in Kenya"
If the AI gives you text or code instead of a picture
Reply: "No — I want the actual chart as an image I can screenshot, not code or text. Draw it." That almost always fixes it.
The Workflow, End to End¶
| Step | What you do | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Copy the plan template, fill in the brackets | 2 min |
| 2 | Submit to AI. Answer its 2–3 clarifying questions | 2 min |
| 3 | Read the plan. If too long, reply "shorter, half the length" | 1 min |
| 4 | In the same chat, paste the Gantt prompt, fill in dates | 1 min |
| 5 | Screenshot the chart. Share it | 1 min |
Total: under 10 minutes for a finished plan and visual timeline.
Best Practices¶
- Treat the AI's first output as a draft. Iterate. "Shorter." "Add a column for cost." "Make phase 2 three weeks instead of two."
- Always answer the clarifying questions. If you skip them, the output stays vague.
- Don't paste sensitive data (customer PII, partner contracts, credentials) into public AI tools.
- You own the plan. AI gives you a draft. You bring the judgement. Read it, edit it, never paste it straight into a meeting.
Quick Reference¶
Bookmark this section. Everything you need on one screen.
Plan prompt¶
Act as a project manager. Create a short project plan for:
PROJECT: [name + one-sentence goal]
CONTEXT: [2 sentences — why now, who it's for]
TIMELINE: [e.g. 6 weeks]
TEAM: [who's involved]
Format (do not add extra sections):
1. Goal & success metric (2 bullets)
2. Phases — table: Phase | Duration | Deliverable | Owner (max 5 rows)
3. Top 3 risks — table: Risk | Mitigation
4. Next 3 steps for this week
Rules:
- Under 400 words total.
- Ask me up to 3 questions before writing if anything is unclear.
- Do not invent dates, names, or budgets.
Gantt prompt¶
Now draw a Gantt chart of the plan above and show it to me as a
finished visual image, here in the chat.
I do NOT want code, syntax, or text I have to paste somewhere else.
I want the actual chart — ready to screenshot.
Rules for the chart:
- Project start date: [YYYY-MM-DD]
- Total duration: [N] weeks (must match the plan)
- Calendar months along the top
- Each phase from the plan is a section
- Break each phase into 2–4 specific tasks with realistic durations
- Each task is a horizontal bar, labelled with the task name
- Use a different colour for each phase
- Show dependencies where one task must finish before another starts
- Title the chart: "[Project name]"
Two magic lines for any AI prompt¶
"Under [N] words." "Ask me up to 3 questions before writing if anything is unclear."
Try It This Week¶
Pick one real task from your work this week — a station audit, a customer visit, a sales rep training, a distributor onboarding, a launch. Use the template. Share the result with your team.
You'll get better every time.