Principles that apply everywhere.
BE SPECIFIC
Vague requests produce vague output. State what you want, for whom, in what form, at what length.
PROVIDE CONTEXT
The model knows nothing about your business, your audience or your situation unless you say.
GIVE EXAMPLES
One example of the output you want is worth several paragraphs of description.
ASK FOR ONE THING
Split complex requests into steps.
ASK FOR REASONING FIRST
For anything involving judgement, ask it to work through the problem before concluding.
ITERATE
Treat the first output as a draft. Say what is wrong and ask again.
ASK FOR ALTERNATIVES
Three options to choose from beats one to accept.
ASK FOR CRITICISM EXPLICITLY
It will not volunteer disagreement.
STATE THE FORMAT
Bullet points, a table, a specific length, a particular structure.
START A NEW CONVERSATION FOR A NEW TASK
Context from an unrelated discussion degrades results.
THE SINGLE MOST USEFUL HABIT
Providing context. Most disappointing output comes from prompts that assumed knowledge the model did not have.
