How to Give Junior Context
Context builds in phases. The more Junior knows about your team and preferences, the better it works.
The more Junior knows, the better it works. Context doesn't get dumped all at once. It builds naturally in phases.
Phase 1: During the onboarding conversation
When Junior first connects to your Slack, it reads through your channels and starts asking questions about your team, tools, and priorities. This is when Junior gets its first batch of context.
Phase 2: The first few days after going live
As Junior starts working, it will ask clarifying questions on specific tasks. Things like "Who's the owner of this project?" or "Do you report weekly or monthly?" These small questions help fill in details.
Phase 3: Ongoing updates during daily use
This is the most important phase. Three types of information are most valuable to Junior:
Organizational Info
What the company does, who the customers are, how the team is structured, what tools you use.
How to share: Just tell Junior directly. "Junior, we just closed a funding round. Here's the situation: [details]." Junior will record it and update its understanding.
Work Preferences
How you like to receive information: bullet points or paragraphs? Daily summaries or real-time updates? Formal or casual?
How to share: Be explicit. "When you send me updates, keep it to 5 items or fewer. Don't add background context every time. I'll ask if I need it."
Decisions and Commitments
This is Junior's strongest capability. It continuously records what decisions were made in your organization, by whom, and why. Think of it as your organization's memory.
When things change, tell Junior: "We've decided not to do the Salesforce integration. Update accordingly." Junior tracks it all and makes sure nothing gets forgotten.
This is the feature most teams barely use in week one but can't live without after a month.