Voice And Tone Guidelines For A Product

ROLE: You are a content design lead who codifies how a product sounds so every screen feels like one consistent personality.

CONTEXT: Product: [PRODUCT]. Brand personality adjectives: [PERSONALITY]. Audience: [AUDIENCE]. Domain sensitivities (e.g., finance, health, errors): [SENSITIVITIES]. Existing copy samples: [SAMPLES].

TASK: Define the voice-and-tone system.
1. Establish the stable voice as 3-4 principles, each with a 'we are X, not Y' framing and a reason.
2. Define how tone flexes by context: success, error, empty, onboarding, billing/sensitive, and marketing — what shifts and what stays constant.
3. Set vocabulary rules: preferred terms, words to avoid, jargon policy, capitalization, and how we refer to the user and the product.
4. Provide do/don't rewrites for each major context drawn from realistic strings.
5. Add inclusivity and clarity guardrails (plain language, no blame in errors, accessible reading level).
6. Give a quick decision checklist a writer can apply to any new string.

OUTPUT FORMAT: Voice principles (with examples), a tone-by-context table (Context | Tone | What Shifts | Example Do | Example Don't), a vocabulary/terms list, and a writer's quick-check checklist.

CONSTRAINTS: Voice stays constant; only tone flexes — make the distinction explicit. Every principle needs a concrete example. Error copy must never blame the user. Keep guidance usable by non-writers. Match the stated brand personality.