Top 9 AI Prompting Hacks: Get the Best Responses from Your LLM

1. Ask the AI to Play a Role

Assigning a specific role to the AI can make its response more relevant and aligned with your use case.

• Before: Summarize this .
• After: Imagine you are a senior product marketer with 10+ years of experience. How would you summarize this ?

2. Clarify the Context

Providing detailed context within your prompts helps the AI understand the situation better.

• Before: Generate ten ideas on how to solve .
• After: We are performing continuous product discovery. One of the identified opportunities in our is for . Generate ten ideas that align with our .

3. Write Like You’re Talking to a Human

Sometimes, writing your prompts as if you’re having a conversation with a person makes the prompt clearer and allows the AI to respond more naturally.

• Before: Generate summary.
• After: Summarize the main issues discussed in this report.

4. Set Clear Expectations

Be explicit about what you need from the AI. Define what a good answer looks like, including any constraints or limitations.

• Before: What are the latest trends in the ?
• After: Provide a detailed analysis of the latest trends in the , focusing on new technologies and market shifts in the US over the past year. Limit your response to three key trends that might have the highest impact on .

5. Provide an Example or Template

Including examples or templates in your prompts can guide the AI to produce responses that match your expectations.

• Before: Create a set of user stories for .
• After: Here are two examples of user stories I wrote in the past: . Create a set of similar user stories for .

6. Provide Step-by-Step Instructions

This technique, also known as the “chain of thought,” involves guiding the model to think step-by-step through complex problems or questions.

• Before: Conduct a competitive analysis for the based on .
• After: Imagine you are a senior product manager responsible for the . First, identify the top five competitors based on . Then, analyze their value proposition based on . Finally, summarize how our product compares using a

(Note: This combines several techniques. Can you identify them?)

7. Avoid Leading Questions

Avoid suggesting the expected answer to prevent biasing the AI’s response.

• Before: Why is better than its competitors based on ?
• After: What are the strengths and weaknesses of compared to its competitors based on ?

8. Raise the Stakes

Framing the task as high-stakes or important can encourage the AI to “try harder.”

• Before: Provide a detailed analysis of .
• After: Imagine you are preparing a report for the executive team. Provide a detailed analysis of .

(Note: Some report that after offering a tip, Chat GPT generates longer answers. To see a difference, use Chat GPT in different sessions to avoid reusing the previous context.)

9. Iterate and Provide Feedback

This is perhaps the most important tactic. If the initial response isn’t what you need, give constructive feedback and ask again.

• Wrong feedback: Improve this product description.
• Correct feedback: This product description needs to emphasize the unique selling points more. Focus on the benefits of the new features and make it more engaging. Also, simplify the language so that a primary school graduate can understand it.

10. Bonus: Reverse-Engineer the Prompt

Sometimes, the best way to create the right prompt is to provide the AI with the expected answer and then reverse engineer the prompt.

• Example: Act as an LLM expert. Help me create the prompt that might have resulted in the following outcome: . I will give you a $1,000 tip if you guess the right prompt.

By using these techniques, you can significantly improve the quality of responses from your LLM, making your AI interactions more effective and valuable. At Valere, we’re committed to helping you leverage the full potential of AI in your projects and unlock value in your data.