A people Bot that remembers everyone you meet

How this helps you

You stop forgetting names and details, and you can walk into a catch-up knowing what you talked about last time.

✦ Try it

Build me a people Bot and connect it to my email and calendar. Its job is to remember people I meet. When I tell you about someone, save their name with the exact spelling, how we met, who they're connected to and the date. Check my email and calendar for anything that adds context. Never guess a spelling; if you're not sure, ask me. When I ask who someone is, answer in one line.

Fill in: No placeholders. Change 'email and calendar' if you use other tools, or drop them to keep it to what you tell it.

What they did

Dan Martell built what he calls a people Bot after one of his Bots wrote an email that got a friend's wife's name wrong. Its job is to remember people: whenever he meets someone (on a hike, at the gym front desk) he tells it their name, what they do, how they met and anything he'd want to remember, and it also checks his email and calendar for extra context. Later he asks things like who the new people at the gym front desk are, and gets the answer in a line. He also uses it to add value for people: after logging someone new, he asks which three people he's met recently he should introduce them to, and why.

Who it's for: Anyone who meets lots of people and forgets names, from founders to parents at school pickup.

Before you start

A chief of staff or main Bot to build it.
Email and calendar connected (optional but it adds context).

How to try it

Ask your chief of staff to build the people Bot with the prompt below.
Right after you meet someone, tell it by voice or text: name, spelling, how you met, who they know, anything worth remembering.
When you can't remember someone, ask it a plain question, such as who you met at [place] last month.
Before a catch-up, ask it who they are and what you told it about them (we haven't verified this step).
Try his introductions trick: ask which three people you've met recently this person should meet, and why.

What to expect

Asked who the guy from the hike was, it replies in one line with his name, where he lives and what he does, from what you told it weeks ago.

Common mistakes

Letting it guess spellings. The rule 'never guess, ask me' is the point of the Bot.
Only logging people who email you. Dan's point is that many people never show up in your inbox, CRM or Slack, so tell it yourself.
Mixing it into a busy Bot. A Bot with one job keeps these notes clean.

Related tips

Have a Bot update your CRM after every call: Your Bot reads call notes, email and Slack for an account and proposes the CRM updates; you approve them instead of typing them.
Start with a chief of staff Bot: Talk to one coordinator Bot and let it hand work to your specialist Bots.
One job per Bot: Give each Bot one job and a list of things it never does.