Let's create a practical toolkit you can use immediately:
The Universal Prompt Formula
```text [ROLE] + [CONTEXT] + [TASK] + [CONSTRAINTS] + [FORMAT] + [EXAMPLES] ```text FILLED EXAMPLE: "[ROLE] You are a crisis communication expert who has handled major PR disasters.
[CONTEXT] Our startup just discovered a data breach affecting 10,000 customers. We found out today but the breach happened two weeks ago. No financial data was compromised, only email addresses, and names.
[TASK] Draft our public communication strategy.
[CONSTRAINTS] We need to maintain trust while being legally careful. Timeline: announcement within 24 hours.
[FORMAT] Provide: 1. Initial customer email (200 words) 2. Press release (300 words) 3. FAQ for support team (10 questions) 4. Social media response template
[EXAMPLES] Tone should be like Slack's outage communications—transparent, human, taking responsibility without legal admissions."
The Psychology Checklist
Before sending any prompt, verify:
□ Explicit not implicit - Could someone with no context understand exactly what I want? □ Framed positively - Am I saying what TO do rather than what to avoid? □ Expertise assigned - Have I activated the right knowledge clusters? □ Specificity included - Have I provided enough detail to get a tailored response? □ Examples provided - Have I shown what good looks like? □ Progressively built - For complex requests, am I building understanding step by step?