Chronicle reposted this
At Chronicle, we've spent hours crafting prompts that generate outlines and visual layouts. Here's what we've learned building AI-powered storytelling tools: 1) Design prompts like you're onboarding a new team member. Be clear but don't micromanage - Set clear context and goals - Define what success looks like - Have grace and conditions for when mistakes are made (especially when it comes to enforcing character limits) 2) Less prescription = more creativity Our testing shows that adding use cases like ‘presentation’ actually dampens the creativity of the LLM. Let AI explore possibilities within your guardrails. We do this by asking it to identify the type of use case first, then use few-shot examples and guidelines to generate an outline and content. 3) Your prompt's structure shapes your results. It matters more than you’d expect - LLMs pay special attention to info at the start and end - Critical requirements go at the start - Reinforce key points at the end - Use the middle for examples and context - Keep instructions dense but readable 4) Iterate in the wild, not in isolation - Stress-test varying input lengths and different content types - Keep a prompt library (Notion works great!) - Document what works and why 5) When optimization gets tough, collaborate with AI. Some of our best improvements came from simply asking: "How would you improve this prompt?" "What constraints are limiting creativity?" "What elements are we missing?" Want to see these principles in action? Join our waitlist! (Link in comments)