tool 9 of 12 · class 11 · design for voice

brand voice system

Personality, tone, vocabulary, and the words you never use, written as instructions an AI assistant can follow and a new hire can learn in an hour.

instrument · messaging matrixdue before class 12 · Nov 10venture book chapter · the brand

what you make

Personality, tone, vocabulary, and the words you never use, written as instructions an AI assistant can follow and a new hire can learn in an hour.

Brands are heard before they are seen. A voice guide that only lives in a brand book is not much use; it has to produce good writing.

Audiences down the side, the one thing each needs to hear across the top, and the proof for each claim. One page.

The voice system says how you sound. The matrix says what you say to whom. It is the bridge between the voice prompt and the creative brief.

01
The voice prompt passes the test: an outsider cannot tell the AI's copy from the founder's on ten real tasks.
02
The vocabulary list includes words you will not use, and they are specific.
03
The matrix has two to four audiences, and each row has a different headline message.
04
Every message has a proof point you could show, not just say.

01
Write the voice as three adjectives, each with a 'but not' (confident but not cocky).
02
Turn it into a system prompt. Test it on ten real writing tasks with your AI assistant until it holds.
03
List your audiences: the buyer, the user, the person who has to approve it, the press.
04
For each, write the one thing they need to hear and the proof you have.
05
Read the matrix aloud in the voice. Fix anything that sounds like a different company.

Print this page, or copy the structure into your Venture Book. Every line is meant to be filled in.

Audience	What they care about	The one thing they need to hear	Proof	Where they will hear it