BMS how-to library

Module 4 · Scale and maintain · Lesson 10 of 13 · 5 minutes

Ask Quincy for help

You get a usable summary or draft from Quincy on the first prompt instead of the fifth.

The BMS scenario

You have a 60-page bill, a hearing transcript and 20 minutes before the call.

When to use it

Triage, pre-meeting prep, and drafting internal updates.

Why it matters

Quincy saves the most time exactly where reading costs the most — long bill text and hearing transcripts. A vague prompt gives back a vague answer, which then gets re-prompted five times; a specific prompt gives back something you can verify and use in one pass.

Before you start

  • The bill, sheet or transcript you want Quincy to work on, open in front of you.
  • A clear idea of the output shape you want: bullets, a paragraph, a table.

Field guide

Prompt context (record you're asking from)
Ask from the bill profile, sheet or transcript itself rather than a blank chat — the context Quincy has access to changes the quality of the answer.
Format instruction in the prompt
State bullets, word count or table structure explicitly; without it Quincy defaults to a general paragraph that's harder to paste anywhere useful.
Follow-up prompts
Keep follow-ups short and targeted ('shorter', 'plain language') rather than restating the whole original prompt — this is faster and preserves the context already established.

If your situation is different

  • If the output will inform a stance or go to leadership, always verify against the source record before it leaves your notes — do not treat a Quincy draft as a finished stance rationale.
  • If you're comparing bill language across several states, ask Quincy directly for the comparison rather than summarizing each bill separately and comparing by hand — that's the use case where it saves the most time.
  • If you get the same kind of question every week, save the winning prompt somewhere the team can find it, so the second person to need it doesn't start from zero.

Step by step

Steps describe the general Quorum workflow. What your seat shows depends on the BMS subscription — check with your Quorum admin if a control isn't there.

  1. 1

    Point Quincy at the specific record

    Ask from the bill profile or transcript you mean. A general question gets a general answer.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 1.1Open the bill profile, sheet or transcript first, then ask from inside that record.
    2. 1.2State the audience in the prompt: 'for a state affairs lead', 'for leadership'.
    3. 1.3Name the jurisdiction and timeframe explicitly rather than assuming Quincy will infer scope.

    You know it worked when: The answer references the actual bill, not generic policy language.

  2. 2

    Name subject, scope and timeframe

    'Summarize what changed on my tracked PBM bills in the last 14 days' is answerable; 'what's new?' isn't.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 2.1Specify length and format: 'five bullets', 'under 100 words', 'a table of state, bill, status, stance'.
    2. 2.2Say what to leave out as well as what to include.
    3. 2.3Ask for plain language if the output is headed to someone outside the policy team.

    You know it worked when: The output arrived in the shape you asked for.

  3. 3

    Say what shape you want back

    Three bullets, a paragraph for leadership, a comparison table in prose — ask for the format you'll actually paste.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 3.1Say what shape you want back before Quincy drafts, not after.
    2. 3.2Refine with one targeted follow-up — 'shorter', 'focus on manufacturer obligations' — rather than rewriting the prompt from scratch.
    3. 3.3Ask a second, narrower follow-up if the first refinement still isn't the right shape.

    You know it worked when: The follow-up got you closer without a full rewrite of the prompt.

  4. 4

    Refine with follow-ups

    'Shorter', 'focus on the two states with hearings', 'plain language for a non-expert' beats rewriting the prompt.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 4.1Read the output against the source before using it anywhere — Quincy accelerates the pass, it does not replace the check.
    2. 4.2Open the underlying bill profile and confirm anything that will drive a stance or reach leadership.
    3. 4.3Flag anything you can't verify rather than editing it into something that sounds confident.

    You know it worked when: You verified at least one factual claim against the record.

  5. 5

    Verify before it informs a position

    Open the bill profile and confirm anything that will drive a stance or reach leadership. Quincy output is a first draft.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 5.1Paste the verified output into the bill note, the sheet or your briefing.
    2. 5.2Keep the prompt that worked; reuse it next week rather than reinventing it.
    3. 5.3Add it to a short personal prompt library so the next person on the team benefits too.

    You know it worked when: The result is saved somewhere a colleague will find it.

Common mistakes

  • Asking a general question in the abstract instead of from the specific record.

    Fix: Open the bill, sheet or transcript first, then prompt from inside it.

  • Not specifying format, then reformatting the answer by hand.

    Fix: State the shape you want — bullets, length, table — in the original prompt.

  • Rewriting the whole prompt from scratch after an unsatisfying answer.

    Fix: Use a short, targeted follow-up instead; it preserves context and gets there faster.

  • Using an unverified Quincy summary externally.

    Fix: Check at least the key factual claims against the source record before it leaves your notes.

Prompts to run in Quincy, inside Quorum

Quincy is the agentic layer in Quorum — it works on your live data. Copy a prompt into Quincy after you log in. If you want the steps explained first, ask the site guide.

  • "Summarize this bill in five bullets for a state affairs lead, focused on manufacturer obligations."
  • "Compare the language in these three states' bills and tell me where they diverge."
  • "Draft a three-sentence leadership update on what changed across my tracked bills this week."
Open Quincy in Quorum

Practice it now

  1. 1) Write and save three reusable prompts: bill summary, weekly rollup, meeting prep.
Open Quorum and try it

Done looks like this

  • A small library of prompts that work first time.
  • Every Quincy output used externally has been checked against the source.

When to stop and ask

If Quincy consistently can't access a record you expect it to see, or its answers ignore context you know is on the bill profile, check with a Quorum admin or the BMS account team (Michael Fuentes, michael.fuentes@quorum.us) rather than assuming the tool can't do it.