Why Most Prompts Fall Flat – and the AI Tips That Fix Them
Are you getting generic output from ChatGPT? You’re not alone. These AI tips can help.
Prompting is the art of crafting clear, intentional inputs that guide the model to deliver the output you actually want. It’s a skill—and like any skill, a few small adjustments can lead to dramatically better results.
Quick Refresher: My GUIDE Framework: A few months ago, I shared my GUIDE prompting framework. A simple way to remember how to steer the tool instead of hoping it reads your mind.
- Ground in Context: What are you working on? For whom? What’s the goal?
- Use a Defined Role: Assign a role that fits the task (e.g., “act as a brand strategist”).
- Identify the Steps: Break the task into clear, actionable instructions.
- Define Output & Examples: Be specific about what you want and what “good” looks like.
- Engage for Stronger Output: End with “Ask me three clarifying questions one by one before you answer.
You don’t need to memorize this, you just need to remember: You have to GUIDE the tool if you want it to follow you.
Moving Beyond Frameworks: The Right Mindset and AI Tips:
Frameworks are a great starting point, but sometimes the challenge isn’t just structure—it’s mindset. We often approach these tools expecting magic on the first try. And when it doesn’t happen, we write them off or revert to doing the work ourselves. But the truth is, a slight shift in how you think about prompting can change everything.
Here are a few deeper principles and AI tips I use regularly—and recommend to clients and teams who want to level up.
Think of ChatGPT as a highly capable new hire, one who just needs a lot of direction
This may sound a little odd at first, but stay with me. Imagine you’ve just brought on a new team member who is incredibly bright, extremely fast, and deeply motivated to help. But they don’t yet know your shorthand. They don’t know what “good” looks like for your team. If you handed them an assignment with little context, they’d probably deliver something off the mark. Not because they’re not capable, but because they need guidance. ChatGPT is no different.
"Treat it the way you would a promising new colleague: give it background, share examples, explain your expectations. You’ll get far better work and save time in the long run."
Improve your input: AI tips for better output
This one gets overlooked often. People will say, “It doesn’t sound like me,” or “This doesn’t feel tailored enough.” But when you ask what they shared with the model, the input is usually minimal. If you haven’t shown it how you write, don’t be surprised when the output doesn’t match your voice.
A little investment upfront – like past writing samples, tone-of-voice guidance, or clear preferences – can pay off in major ways downstream.
Approach it as a dialogue, not a one-and-done request
We’re conditioned to expect single-shot outputs, especially from tools we associate with productivity. But the real magic of ChatGPT shows up when you treat it more like a teammate. Don’t be afraid to go back and forth, give feedback, refine, or even ask it to explain its thinking. That iterative loop isn’t a failure of the tool, it’s part of the process. You wouldn’t expect to brief a creative agency once and get the perfect deck immediately. This works the same way.
If you’re stuck, stop and prompt it to help you prompt better
Here’s something most people don’t realize: ChatGPT is quite good at helping you write better prompts, if you ask.
"When you’re not getting what you want, pause and say something like, 'Here’s what I’m trying to do. Can you suggest a better way to prompt you to get that outcome?' This step alone can save you time, reduce frustration, and even improve your own prompting instincts along the way."
Use the “three clarifying questions” trick and start fresh
At the end of your prompt, add: “Ask me three clarifying questions before responding.” This forces the model to slow down and assess what it still needs to know in order to deliver a great answer. Once you’ve answered those questions, open a new chat and restate the refined prompt.
Starting fresh like this helps remove the noise from your previous back-and-forth and increases the odds you’ll get a clear, final answer.
When the output finally lands, reverse-engineer what worked
Sometimes you go through a dozen iterations before the model finally delivers exactly what you want. When that happens, don’t just move on—take a minute to ask the tool to reflect on what changed. Try, “This is exactly what I needed. Help me revise my original prompt so I get this output faster next time.” You’ll end up with a cleaner, reusable version you can keep on file for the future.
Prompting is about being a good communicator. It’s about learning how to communicate more clearly and intentionally with a tool that has no intuition and no context unless you provide it. A few extra lines of context and clarity can completely change the quality of the output.
