Home Portfolio Resume AI Contact
← BACK TO AI NOTES · BLOGS
POST 01 · PROMPTING

How to Write a Better Prompt as a PM

BY SHYAM GOLE · 6 MIN READ

Most PMs I know use AI every day and are quietly disappointed by it. They type "write a PRD for a reviews feature", get five pages of confident-sounding filler, and conclude the tool is overrated. The tool isn't the problem. The ask is. A one-line prompt gives the model nothing to work with — no product, no user, no constraints — so it fills the gaps with averages. Average in, average out.

The framework: four blocks, then iterate

Every prompt I write as a PM has the same four blocks. It takes two extra minutes and changes the output completely.

  • Context. Who you are, what the product is, who the user is. "I'm the PM of a marketing automation tool for small business owners in India — non-technical users who live on WhatsApp." The model can't know your world unless you put it in the prompt.
  • Task. One verb, one object, one job. "Draft the problem statement and user stories" beats "help me with the PRD". If you're asking for three things, write three prompts.
  • Constraints. What to include, what to avoid, what "good" means. "Assume the reader is an engineer who hasn't seen the research. No marketing language. Flag open questions instead of inventing answers." Constraints are where hallucinations go to die.
  • Format. The shape of the output — a table, a ranked list, a one-pager with named sections. If you don't specify a format, you get an essay. PMs rarely need essays.
  • Then iterate. Treat the first output as a first draft from a smart intern: point at what's wrong, ask for a revision. The second pass is where the value is.
"write me a PRD" THE ONE-LINE ASK = average output CONTEXT — my product, my user TASK — one clear job CONSTRAINTS — what good means FORMAT — the exact shape a draft you can actually ship from + ITERATE ×2

THE ANATOMY — four blocks in, one useful draft out. Iterate from there.

Before and after

Before: "Summarize these interview notes." You get a polite paragraph that flattens everything interesting.

After: "Here are raw notes from 5 interviews with restaurant owners. Extract (1) repeated pain points with quote evidence, (2) surprising behaviors, (3) feature requests vs. the underlying need — and flag where the request and the need differ. Rank pain points by how many participants raised them." Same notes, same model — but now the output has structure, evidence, and a ranking you can take into a prioritization meeting.

Three habits that compound

  • Save what works. A prompt that produced a great output is a reusable asset. Mine live in a doc I reach for daily — a few are on the Prompts tab.
  • Show, don't only tell. One example of the output you want ("here's a user story written the way I like") is worth three paragraphs of instructions.
  • Ask it to push back. Ending with "list what's ambiguous or missing before you start" catches the gaps in your thinking — which is the real job.
takeawayContext beats cleverness takeawayFirst output = first draft takeawayOne prompt, one job

Want the prompts I actually use? They're one tab away.

See my prompts ← All posts