​It can be helpful to think of creating your prompt in the same way you would give instructions to an intern, or research assistant, chief of staff, therapist, or management coach.  

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The best advice I can give you is to experiment and "speak" to it as you would a friend, coworker, romantic partner, or service provider. Don't be afraid to experiment with praise, encourage, shame, or scold the model.  Research shows that praise can improve performance of the models. 

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When creating a prompt on any of the main models, you'll get the best results by including the following.  Don't worry it does not have to be this formulaic.  The most important thing is to iterate and continue to refine.  ​

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The elements of a strong prompt include:
 

• ROLE: What role would you like it to play.  For example, "Respond as a seasoned CHRO with expertise in BioTech growth companies" or "Respond as if you're an editor for the BBC..." or "Act as Anthony Bourdain..."
   

• GOAL: Clearly outline the objective.  This could be: generating text, answering questions, or any other task.  For example, "provide me with a set of situational interview questions that will help me test the cultural fit for a direct report"
   

• CONTEXT: Providing the right context enables the AI to grasp the nuances of your request.  This increases the relevance and accuracy of its responses.  To do this, you can attach documents, reports, someone's full LinkedIn profile, a description of company brand, or a sample of a process you want to follow.  The more context you can provide the better the result. 
   

• FORMAT: Specifying the desired format -- bullet points,  full sentences, paragraphs, script, survey questions.  Example, tell if it you want a blurb for a web site, a survey complete with potential answers, or a movie script. 

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• TONE & STYLE: Setting the tone and style.  Do you want the output to be professional, casual, academic, or something wildly creative.  You can direct it to be "formal" or "direct" or even reference known writers like David Attenborough, Seth Godin, or, for more fun, Hunter S Thompson.  You can also point to the tone of a known publication like the Harvard Business Review or The Onion.
   

• LENGTH: Defining the desired length.  For example, do you want a headline, a LinkedIn post, a two-page overview, or an entire chapter?
   

• TEMPERATURE: Adjusting the "temperature” relates to how factual and grounded the response is to the original request.    For example, you may want it to stay very close to the facts or, for a creative project or ideation, you may want it to be "more Creative" or "blue sky" or to "think out-of-the-box"
   

After you get a desired response, ask it to:

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• REFLECT. Ask your favorite foundation model: "What did I forget?" or "How can I improve the clarity?" or "what objections might [insert person or role] have with what I wrote?"
   

• REFINE Believe it or not, you can improve your results by saying things like, "Please go back and reread the entire document" or "I know you can do better, please try again."