Prompt Engineering Tips

1. Have A Conversation

The world of LLM (large language models) AI is filled with misinformation. AI is impressively attuned to human conversation. You wouldn't have a normal converation with short phrases. Why would you try it with AI?

When asking for help, try treating the AI like you are treating a new hire. Be detailed. Break down the concepts and give as much insight as possible. If the results aren't to your liking, tell it why, give it more direction, and your results will improve.

2. Provide The Story

Context is king here. Instead of asking it a broad question that can be interpreted broadly, give it context on where you're coming from and where you want to go.

Don't ask "How do I play the guitar?". That answers will be surface level examples and likely not answer what you need. Try asking, "I'm a beginner and want to learn to play the guitar. Where should I start?".

This will give a starting point for the AI and help it provide a series of steps to get you going. Taking the extra second to give it more information will make a major difference. Don't be afraid to take more time and provide a robust story for context.

3. Assume The Role

One of the most powerful tricks in prompt engineering is how well an AI can assume the personality, perspective, and job of something. However, it comes with drawbacks.

Many people have found lackluster results from asking AI to do the job of, say, a content writer. What really seems to work is asking it to assume the role of a professional content writer.

The major distinction here comes from how it interprets doing a job, and assuming the role of a somebody doing the job.

Either way it rationalizs it, we always tell the AI to assume the role of a career path. For instance, we have found the best and most powerful responces from something like "Assume the role of a professional content writer. Help me write a social media post on..."

Another powerful strategy can be asking the AI to assume a personality or perspective as well. It can be helpful in professional settings to have the AI adopt the role of a confused customer and carry out a sales conversation. Or you could have some fun and ask the AI to write a paper in the personality of Tony Stark and see how it often it talks about how great it is.

4. Supply Examples

I can remember the day that really opened my eyes to the potential of AI. I wanted to develop a 5-stage email funnel and wasn't getting the best responce from AI. So I uploaded the previous one we had spent dozens of hours testing and refining as a baseline.

What I got back was incredible! Always uploaded examples even if it's not a PDF. Giving the story and background is huge, giving a template to build from is unreal.

5. Rewrite With Tonality

Once you have something ready whether its a post, email, or part of a course, ask it to rewrite with Tonality and Style. You can simply ask it to write in the tone of Empowering & Calm, or go further and say "Rewrite in the style of Tony Stark. Should sound confident, snarky, and playful".

This is one of the most powerful tricks that people skip on!