You know what you want to say until you open a blank document. Then the idea that felt clear in your head turns into a title, half an opening paragraph, and a prompt asking AI to figure out the rest.
The result may be tidy, but it usually has the safest available opinion because you never gave it yours. We noticed this while producing our own content with AI. An early draft was agreeable and structurally fine, but we hadn't captured our point of view before generating it, so the result could have been written by anyone. As we explored in Why AI content sounds generic, editing could improve the sentences, but adding our point of view afterward took much more work.
We found a simple way to capture that missing source material: write a content brief, turn it into interview questions, and answer them aloud while a transcription tool runs. You can then give the brief, transcript, and relevant company context to AI as the inputs for a draft.
This works when the person with the idea is also doing the content work, whether their usual title is founder, marketer, product manager, or something else. If the expertise belongs to another person, interview them instead.
1. Write a brief before you record
Start with a short content brief that answers a few practical questions:
Who is this for?
What should they understand or do after reading?
What is your angle on the subject?
Which messages need to come through?
What rough order will help the argument make sense?
If you don't have a brief yet, use a prompt like this:
Help me create a short content brief for an article. My topic is [topic], the intended reader is [audience], and I want the article to [goal]. Ask only the questions needed to sharpen my angle and fill important gaps. Then return the audience, goal, angle, key messages, and a rough outline. Don't draft the article yet.
The brief gives the conversation somewhere to go. It also stops the recording from becoming a long stream of loosely related ideas that an AI has to shape into a purpose after the fact.
It doesn't need to contain the whole article. In our experience, it only needs enough detail to spark a thought you can develop aloud. If a section gives you nothing to say, reconsider whether it belongs in the brief. A blank spot can reveal that the angle is still too broad or that the article needs another source.
2. Turn each section into interview questions
Go through the outline and write questions that ask for judgment rather than summary. A question such as "What should this section cover?" invites a generic answer. Ask for the parts only you can supply:
What do I actually believe about this?
What happened when I tried it?
Which part would I disagree with?
What example makes the point concrete?
Where is the advice less straightforward than it sounds?
What am I still uncertain about?
Ask AI to generate these questions from the brief. It is fast, and while AI cannot supply your opinion, it can ask a question that sparks an idea you might not have reached on your own. Tell it to probe for opinions, examples, caveats, and disagreements, so the questions help you think instead of rehearsing facts already in the brief.
Try this prompt:
Read the content brief below and create a self-interview guide. For each section in the outline, write one main question and up to three follow-up questions that draw out my opinion, firsthand examples, disagreements, tradeoffs, and uncertainty. Don't ask me to repeat facts already stated in the brief, and don't invent a position for me. Keep the questions in the same order as the outline.
Brief: [paste the brief or provide its file path]
3. Record yourself talking through the questions
Use a transcription app such as Vibe, or start a call in Google Meet and turn on transcription. Begin with the first question and speak as if a colleague had asked it in a meeting. You don't need to perform the finished article or find the perfect wording while you talk.
This is useful precisely because speaking can feel easier than composing. You can state an idea, hear that it isn't quite right, and try again without stopping to polish every sentence. Keep talking if a side thought brings up a useful example. If you're unsure about something, say so.
Leave the raw transcript messy. Repetition can help the AI see how your thinking developed, even when the final article should make the point once. False starts, filler words, and transcription mistakes are source noise, not a reason to clean the whole file before drafting.
The recording only needs to last as long as you have something useful to add. Stop when you find yourself repeating the same answer without developing it.
Extra tip: Once you're comfortable with self-interviews, record video instead of audio. You'll get the transcript for your article and footage you can turn into video content.
4. Give AI the brief, transcript, and company context
These inputs do different jobs. The brief defines the audience, goal, angle, and structure. The transcript carries your opinions and examples. Company context supplies the current facts about the product, customer, and brand voice.
They don't have to live in three separate files, but keeping their roles clear makes the drafting request easier to review. A prompt can be as direct as this:
Write a draft using the attached brief, self-interview transcript, and company context. Use the brief for the audience, goal, angle, and outline. Use the transcript for my opinions, examples, and qualifications without inventing a stronger position than I expressed. Treat the company context as the source for product, audience, and brand claims. If the sources disagree, flag the conflict instead of choosing whichever version produces a smoother paragraph. If a required fact is missing, flag the gap instead of guessing.
Label each input clearly, whether you attach separate files or combine them in one message. This makes it easier to check whether a claim came from the brief, the transcript, or the company context.
A disagreement between the transcript and company context needs a person to resolve it. The transcript might contain a loose statement, or the approved company context might be stale. The prompt should flag the conflict so you can decide which source is current.
5. Review what AI flattened, exaggerated, or invented
The first draft is still a draft. Read it beside the transcript and check whether the argument reflects what you meant, especially where the AI made the language more dramatic or certain.
We see this kind of inflation often. You might say that copying text between windows wastes some time, and the draft turns it into a catastrophic breakdown of the modern content workflow. The larger claim sounds more important, but it no longer matches the source.
You can ask AI to do the first review pass if it can read the draft and its sources. Have it flag claims that lack support, qualifications that became firm conclusions, and passages that conflict with the company context. Then make the final call yourself by asking:
Did this claim come from the transcript or company context?
Did the draft turn a qualification into a firm conclusion?
Did it remove an awkward but useful distinction?
Does the structure develop the idea, or repeat it in polished variations?
Would I say this to someone in a real conversation?
Remove anything the AI supplied without support. Restore nuance when the polished version is less accurate than the spoken one, and rewrite passages where transcription errors changed the meaning. Every section still needs editorial judgment because the writer, not the model, owns the final argument.
6. Save the workflow for the next article
The complete workflow is short:
Write a brief with the audience, goal, angle, messages, and outline.
Generate interview questions from the brief.
Record yourself answering them and save the transcript.
Draft from the brief, transcript, and current company context.
Review every claim and editorial choice before publishing.
Once the process works for you, save the instructions as a reusable prompt, template, or skill. The format matters less than giving the AI the same sources, sequence, and review rules the next time you write an article. If you'd rather use the workflow in one workspace than build it yourself, download Inbind.
How we do it with Inbind
We're implementing a similar workflow in Inbind, so we don't have to assemble it from prompts each time. Inbind's AI helps us build a brief, turn it into self-interview questions, and combine the brief, transcript, and company context into a draft.
The review happens in the same place. We focus on whether the wording and angle feel right, while the AI compares the draft with our company context and brand guidance. Inbind's visual edit approval shows us the proposed changes in the document before we accept them, and we make the final edits in the same markdown editor.
You don't need Inbind to try the workflow. Pick the next idea sitting unwritten in your notes, make a short brief, start a meeting with yourself, and talk through the questions. The transcript does not have to sound like an article. It only has to contain the thinking you want the article to carry.
If you want to keep the brief, company context, draft, and review in one workspace, download Inbind. It's free to download and use.