Importance of Prompting: Essential skill, varying output quality
Goal: Share the six building blocks for effective prompting
The Six Components of a Good Prompt
Task
Context
Exemplars
Persona
Format
Tone
Order of Importance
Task is essential; context adds relevance
Examples:
"I'm a 70kg male, give me a three-month training program."
Task must always be included for meaningful output.
Breaking Down Each Building Block
1. Task
Start with an action verb: generate, give, write, analyze, etc.
Clearly articulate the end goal.
Example: "Generate a three-month training program."
2. Context
Tricky to define; infinite information possible.
Use three guiding questions:
What's the user's background?
What does success look like?
What environment are they in?
Example:
"I'm a 70kg male looking to gain 5kg of muscle over three months. I can only go to the gym twice a week for one hour each session."
3. Exemplars
Defined as examples to improve output quality.
Include relevant examples or frameworks.
Example:
Resume bullet point: "I lowered hospital mortality rate by 10% by educating nurses on new protocols, translating to 200 lives saved per year."
4. Persona
Define who you want ChatGPT to emulate.
Consider individuals with expertise related to your task.
Example: Physical therapist for workout-related queries.
5. Format
Visualize how you want the end result to look.
Common formats: Emails, bullet points, tables, code blocks, and paragraphs.
Example: Requesting a table format for user feedback.
6. Tone
Define the desired tone: casual, formal, enthusiastic, etc.
Provide a feeling description to guide output.
Example: Writing an email to a new team while maintaining professionalism without being overly formal.
Comprehensive Prompt Example
Prompt: "You are a senior product marketing manager at Apple who has just unveiled the latest product in collaboration with Tesla, the Apple Car, receiving 12,000 pre-orders (200 higher than target). Write an email to your boss Tim Cook sharing this positive news. Include a TL;DR section, project background, business results, and thank the product and engineering teams. Use clear and concise language in a confident yet friendly tone."
Conclusion
Next video will elevate prompting skills from beginner to pro.