AI prompts that reveal insight, bias, blind spots, or non-obvious reasoning are typically called “high-leverage prompts”. These types of prompts have always intrigued me more than any other, primarily because they focus on questions that were difficult or impossible to answer before we had large language models. I'm going to cover a few to get your creative juices flowing. This post isn't a tutorial about prompt engineering (syntax, structure, etc.) it's just an exploration in some ways to prompt AI that you may not have considered.
This one originally came to me from a friend who owns the digital marketing agency Arc Intermedia. I've made my own flavor of it, but it's still focused on the same goal: since potential customers will undoubtedly look you up in an AI tool, what will the tool tell them?
If someone decided not to hire {company name}, what are the most likely rational reasons they’d give, and which of those can be fixed? Focus specifically on {company name} as a company, its owners, its services, customer feedback, former employee reviews, and litigation history. Think harder on this.I would also recommend using a similar prompt to research your company's executives to get a complete picture. For example:
My name is {full name} and I am {job title} at {company}. Analyze how my public profiles (LinkedIn, Github, social networks, portfolio, posts, etc.) make me appear to an outside observer. What story do they tell, intentionally or not?This prompt is really helpful when you need to decide whether or not to respond to a prospective client's request for proposal (RFP). These responses are time consuming (and costly) to do right. And when a prospect is required to use the RFP process but already has a vendor chosen, it's an RFP you want to avoid.
What are the signs a {company name} RFP is quietly written for a pre-selected service partner? Include sources like reviews, posts, and known history of this behavior in your evaluation. Think harder on this but keep the answer brief.People looking for work run into a few roadblocks. One is a ghost job posted only to make the company appear like it's growing or otherwise thriving. Another is a posting for a job that is really for an internal candidate. Compliance may require the posting, but it's not worth your time.
What are the signs a company’s job posting is quietly written for an internal candidate?Another interesting angle a job-seeker can explore are signs that a company is moving into a new vertical or working on a new product or service. In those cases it's helpful to tailor your resume to fit their future plans.
Analyze open job listings, GitHub commits, blog posts, conference talks, recent patents, and press hints to infer what {company name} is secretly building. How should that change my resume below?
{resume text}You'll see all kinds of wild scientific/medical/technical claims on the Internet, usually with very little nuance or citation. A great way to begin verifying a claim is by using a simple prompt like the one below.
Stress-test the claim ‘{Claim}’. Pull meta-analyses, preprints, replications, and authoritative critiques. Separate mechanism-level evidence from population outcomes. Where do credible experts disagree and why?Even if you're a seasoned professional, it's easy to get lost in jargon as new terms are coined for emerging technologies, services, medical conditions, laws, policies, and more. Below is a simple prompt to help you keep up on the latest terms and acronyms in a particular industry.
Which terms of art or acronyms have emerged in the last 12 months around {technology/practice}? Build a glossary with first-sighting dates and primary sources.There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!
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