How to use this page
Use this as a working artifact, not a reading assignment. First check whether the problem matches your situation. Then copy the template structure into the tool your team already uses. If you use AI, give it approved source material and keep a human review step before making decisions.
What you should leave with
- A clearer version of the problem this template is meant to solve.
- A first draft you can review with the requester, reviewer, leader, or owner.
- A short list of missing information, assumptions, and next actions.
The problem this helps with
Training requests arrive as assets before the real work is clear.
What this changes
The request is rarely the real work. Intake gets better when we treat the requested asset as a clue, then look for the task, workflow, audience, and evidence underneath it.
- What if the best answer is smaller than the requested training?
- What would we build if we had to help someone at the exact moment the work breaks?
- What would make this request easier to say yes, no, or not yet to?
Where this fits in the system
This is the first operating habit in the larger system: slow the request down long enough to make the work visible. When intake is clear, every later decision has a better starting point.
Use this when
- A requester asks for a course before naming the performance problem.
- The team needs to decide whether the answer is training, documentation, workflow support, manager support, or a platform fix.
- You need a lighter intake conversation that still creates a useful decision.
What to have ready
- The original request, ticket, email, or meeting note.
- The role or audience the request is supposed to help.
- Any example of where the work breaks today.
Start small enough that the work can move today.
- Paste the blank version into the tool where the request already lives.
- Fill only Request, Audience, and Task first. If those are unclear, pause the build conversation.
- Ask the requester one behavior question before choosing the format.
- Close with one decision: build, redirect, document, inspect, or gather more evidence.
Use this when you need the words.
- I can help with this, but I need to understand the work before we choose the asset.
- What should someone be able to do that they cannot reliably do right now?
- If we can name the audience, task, where the work breaks, and evidence, we can decide whether this is training, documentation, workflow support, manager support, or a tool issue.
Use the answers to choose the next move.
Build training or scenario practice.
Build a job aid or knowledge-base article.
Inspect the workflow before building another asset.
Add manager support instead of another course.
Route the issue to the platform or operations owner.
- The work is already scoped and the team needs project execution, not intake.
- The requester cannot name the audience or task yet and needs discovery first.
- The request involves legal, compliance, or policy decisions that need the owner in the room before scoping.
Copy this structure into the tool you already use.
Field Prompt Filled example
Request What is being requested, and what asset has already been named? Requester asks for a 60-minute workshop on using the new quote workflow.
Audience Who needs help, and what role or workflow are they in? New customer-facing team members who create quotes during onboarding.
Task What should someone be able to do after the support exists? Create a clean first quote without missing required fields or routing it to the wrong approver.
Where it breaks Where does the work fail today? People miss the approval rule when discount level and customer segment both change.
Evidence What would show the support helped? Fewer quote corrections, fewer approval reroutes, and faster first-pass approval for new hires.
Decision What should we build, redirect, document, or inspect next? Build a short task aid and scenario practice before deciding whether a workshop is needed.
Paste this into the tool next to the work.
Blank version
# Training Intake Worksheet
| Field | Notes |
| --- | --- |
| Request | |
| Audience | |
| Task | |
| Where it breaks | |
| Evidence | |
| Decision | |Completed example
# Training Intake Worksheet example
| Field | Example |
| --- | --- |
| Request | Requester asks for a 60-minute workshop on using the new quote workflow. |
| Audience | New customer-facing team members who create quotes during onboarding. |
| Task | Create a clean first quote without missing required fields or routing it to the wrong approver. |
| Where it breaks | People miss the approval rule when discount level and customer segment both change. |
| Evidence | Fewer quote corrections, fewer approval reroutes, and faster first-pass approval for new hires. |
| Decision | Build a short task aid and scenario practice before deciding whether a workshop is needed. |Before accepting the next request, ask: what should someone be able to do that they cannot reliably do now?
Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace
Turn the fields into Microsoft Forms, Google Forms, SharePoint Lists, or a simple spreadsheet only after the triage questions are working in conversation.
AI-assisted help
Use AI to turn a rough request into clarifying questions, likely non-training causes, and a first-pass scope summary for human review.
Use these when AI can help shape the first draft.
Use these as starting points, then adjust them to your approved tool, source material, and review standard.
Turn a rough request into intake questions
Use this when the request arrived as an email, message, ticket, or meeting note and the real task is still fuzzy.
I am triaging a new L&D request.
Source request:
[paste the request here]
Help me slow this down before I accept the requested format.
Return:
1. The likely requested asset
2. What we know about the audience
3. What task or behavior is still unclear
4. Possible non-training causes
5. Five questions I should ask the requester
6. A first-pass recommendation: training, job aid, documentation, workflow fix, manager support, tool issue, or more discovery
Rules:
- Do not invent facts.
- Use "Needs confirmation" where the request is unclear.
- Keep the tone practical and collaborative.Validation checklist
- The requested asset is not treated as the answer until the task is named.
- The audience is specific enough to design for real work.
- The evidence would help someone decide whether the support worked.
- The final decision names what happens next and who owns it.
- Check every fact against an approved source.
- Mark anything AI guessed, inferred, or could not confirm.
- Remove private, sensitive, or customer-specific details that should not be in the working file.
- Confirm the right human owner approves the final decision.
- Review tone, accessibility, and learner impact before anything goes live.
Platform-specific starters
ChatGPT GPT-5 family
Use an outcome-first prompt with the job, source material, constraints, and the exact artifact you want back.
I am using the Training Intake Worksheet for an L&D workflow.
Goal: Help me turn the rough notes below into a practical first draft of the template.
Context: Training requests arrive as assets before the real work is clear.
Use these template fields: Request, Audience, Task, Where it breaks, Evidence, Decision.
Rules:
- Ask clarifying questions if the notes are too thin.
- Do not invent facts, policy details, metrics, or source material.
- Separate what is known from what needs human confirmation.
- Keep the output practical enough to review in a working meeting.
Rough notes:
[paste notes here]
Return:
1. Completed first draft
2. Missing information
3. Risks or assumptions to review
4. One recommended next actionClaude 4 family
Use clear XML-style sections so Claude can keep context, task, constraints, and output format separate.
<context>
I am using the Training Intake Worksheet for an L&D workflow.
Training requests arrive as assets before the real work is clear.
</context>
<source_notes>
[paste notes here]
</source_notes>
<task>
Turn the source notes into a practical first draft using these fields: Request, Audience, Task, Where it breaks, Evidence, Decision.
</task>
<constraints>
Do not invent facts, policy details, metrics, or source material.
Separate what is known from what needs human confirmation.
Flag anything that changes scope, ownership, risk, or decision rights.
</constraints>
<output_format>
1. Completed first draft
2. Missing information
3. Review risks
4. Recommended next action
</output_format>Gemini 3 family
Use a structured task with an example pattern. For Obsidian context, use approved excerpts, Drive exports, Google Docs, or NotebookLM.
Task: Complete a first draft of the Training Intake Worksheet from the notes provided.
Template fields:
- Request: What is being requested, and what asset has already been named?
- Audience: Who needs help, and what role or workflow are they in?
- Task: What should someone be able to do after the support exists?
- Where it breaks: Where does the work fail today?
- Evidence: What would show the support helped?
- Decision: What should we build, redirect, document, or inspect next?
Example pattern:
Field: Request
Good answer: Requester asks for a 60-minute workshop on using the new quote workflow.
Rules:
- Use only the notes provided.
- If information is missing, write "Needs confirmation".
- Keep the output concise and reviewable.
- End with the next best action.
Notes:
[paste notes here]Microsoft 365 Copilot
Use goal, context, expectations, and source. For Obsidian context, use approved excerpts, Word summaries, OneDrive files, SharePoint pages, Teams context, or Outlook threads.
Goal: Create a first draft of the Training Intake Worksheet.
Context: Training requests arrive as assets before the real work is clear.
Source: Use the selected document, meeting notes, request thread, or pasted notes as the only source.
Expectations:
- Fill these fields: Request, Audience, Task, Where it breaks, Evidence, Decision.
- Keep uncertain items marked as "Needs confirmation".
- Do not add facts that are not in the source.
- Summarize the top three review questions for the team.
Output: Return the completed draft, missing information, and one recommended next action.