Using Prompts Like This Makes Results Completely Different (In Practice)

I use models almost every day at work to draft planning documents or summarize reports. At first I threw in things like “write this well,” but I kept getting the same bland results, so after a few months of use I’ve kept only the methods that actually work.

• Lock in the role and audience first

If you include something like “You are a B2B SaaS product planner. The reader is a decision-maker,” the tone gets fixed right away. Expressions like “like an expert” had almost no effect.

• Show the desired output format with an example

Attaching one short sample is far more accurate than explaining it in words. If you want a table, it’s better to include even an empty table.

• Don’t ask for everything at once

“Research, organize, summarize, and polish” always makes the middle steps sloppy. Splitting it into three stages—research → structure → polish sentences—makes a different result.

• Specify prohibited conditions

Just adding these three lines—“Do not speculate, do not use unsupported numbers, and if you don’t know, say you don’t know”—greatly reduces plausible-sounding lies. This had the biggest noticeable impact.

• State length as numbers

“Short” is almost ignored. If you give numbers like “three paragraphs, each no more than three sentences,” it follows well.

Of course, things change slightly when the model changes. Still, I’ve been using these five for almost a year, and they’ve never failed me. I’d also love to hear other people’s tips.

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