Break a large goal into a real work breakdown structure
"Launch the new website" isn't a task list yet — it's a single node sitting at the top of one that hasn't been built.
- Use it for
- Anyone facing a large, vague goal who needs it decomposed into actual milestones and tasks before starting.
A large goal stated in one sentence feels actionable but usually isn't — the gap between "launch the new website" and an actual first task is several levels of decomposition that get skipped when the goal just gets added to a list as-is. This prompt breaks the goal down into a real hierarchy — milestones, then concrete tasks underneath each — so what's left is genuinely specific enough to start on, not the same goal restated at a smaller scale.
When not to use this
For a goal that's already naturally a single concrete task, this decomposition adds nothing — it's for something large enough that "just start" doesn't actually tell you what to do first.
Did this work?
You have a real hierarchy from goal down to concrete tasks, where every task is specific enough to actually start on, not a restatement of the goal at a slightly smaller scale.
Tested on claude-opus-5. Evidence status is draft; it moves to battle-tested only on recorded runs, never by hand.