Prompting for everyday work

You're not building an AI app. You're trying to get more done at work today. Here's how non-coders use AI well — and when not to.

The five-line prompt template

A genuinely useful pattern for almost any work task:

[ROLE]      You are a senior product marketer at a fintech startup.
[TASK]      Rewrite the email below to be more direct and 30% shorter.
[STYLE]     Match a professional but friendly tone. No exclamation marks.
[FORMAT]    Return only the rewritten email, no commentary.
[INPUT]     <paste the email here>

You won't always need all five. But the pattern — set context, name the task, set style, set format, then provide the input — turns vague requests into reliable output.

Compare:

❌ "Make this email better."

vs.

✅ "You're a senior PM at a B2B SaaS. Rewrite this email to be 30% shorter while keeping the polite tone. Output only the rewritten email."

Same minute of typing. Massively different output.

Real-world examples

Three rules of thumb

1. Iterate, don't perfect on the first try

You'll get a better result faster by sending a 70%-good prompt, reading the answer, and saying "more direct, shorter, drop the marketing speak" — than by trying to write a perfect prompt up-front. Treat the conversation like a conversation.

2. Show, don't (just) tell

If you want a specific format or style, show an example. One good example beats two paragraphs of rules.

"Rewrite each customer review as a tweet. Examples:

Review: 'Loved the product, came fast.'
Tweet:  'Fast shipping, product delivers ⚡'

Review: 'Battery life is short.'
Tweet:  'Battery life is the weak link 🔋'

Now do these:
…"

3. Check the work for anything that matters

Numbers, dates, names, citations, URLs, legal/medical/financial implications — verify. Don't ship anything important without a human read.

When NOT to use AI

This list is just as important as the prompt patterns:

Try it yourself (no coding, ~10 minutes)

Pick a real task from your real day. "Reply to this email." "Outline this presentation." "Find the tone for this difficult message."

Try it three ways:

1. Lazy prompt: "Help me with this email: [paste]". Note the result.
2. Briefed prompt: "You're [role]. Rewrite this email to be [shorter / friendlier / more direct]. Match this tone: [paste an example of writing you like]. Output only the rewrite." Note the result.
3. Iterated prompt: take #2's output, then say "good, but make X change". Repeat until happy.

The gap between #1 and #3 is the skill. It takes minutes to learn and pays back forever.

Further reading

• Anthropic — Prompt engineering for non-developers — practical patterns, applicable in chat too.
• Ethan Mollick — One Useful Thing — practical AI-at-work essays.
• OpenAI — Prompt examples — one-line prompt templates, browsable.
• Lenny's Newsletter — AI prompt library — product-management focused but the patterns generalise.