Welcome to Prompt Engineering Lab 

Meet? Name What do you do? What got you excited about prompt engineering One fun thing about you 

Meet? Name What do you do? What got you excited about prompt engineering One fun thing about you 

So here’s our goal for today: In just one hour, we’re going to give you a crash course in prompt engineering: what it is, why it matters, and how to do it well. You’ll walk away knowing how to write better prompts and get more useful, specific, and creative results from AI tools like ChatGPT. No technical skills required, just curiosity and a little imagination. Objective 

Prompt Engineering for Developers Prompt Engineering for Job Seekers Prompt Engineering for Content Creators Prompt Engineering for Business Owners, etc. This session is part of a larger series focused on practical AI skills. Each one is designed to help you go from playing around with AI to actually using it for work, learning, or personal projects. As the demand increases, we will have something for everyone. 

Quick Pulse Check Never A few times I’t my Buddy Have you used ChatGPT before, or any of the other Generative AI Models? 

Prompt engineering is the art and science of writing inputs (prompts) that guide AI models, like ChatGPT, to give you the most accurate, relevant, and useful responses. So, What Is Prompt Engineering and Why Does It Matter? 

Think of prompt engineering as talking to AI in a way it best understands, so you get exactly what you need—whether it’s writing, coding, strategising, or even troubleshooting. Prompt engineering is like ordering food at a restaurant with a huge menu and a very literal waiter. 

If you just say ‘I want food’, the waiter might bring you a random dish. But if you say, ‘I want spicy jollof rice with grilled chicken, no onions, and extra sauce on the side’, you’ll likely get exactly what you want. AI works the same way—the clearer and more specific your request, the better the outcome. 

Before vs. After Prompt Example Basic Prompt (Before) Write a marketing email. Optimised Prompt (After) Write a short, friendly marketing email for a spa business named “Massage by Carmel” launching a new home service. Include a catchy subject line, mention a 15% discount, and end with a call to action. 

Anatomy of an Effective Prompt 🎯 Goal – What do you want? (e.g., a blog post, strategy, email) 🧠 Context – Who is it for? What’s the situation? 🗣️ Tone/Style – Formal, witty, informative? 🧩 Constraints – Word count, format, structure 📌 Examples – Optional, but helps a lot 

Prompting Techniques Zero-shot prompting (ask without examples) Prompt: Translate the following English sentence into French: "The weather is beautiful today." 

Prompting Techniques Zero-shot prompting (ask without examples) Prompt: Translate the following English sentence into French: "The weather is beautiful today." Few-shot prompting (show a few examples) Prompt: Translate the following English sentences into French: Just like this, I love apples." → "J'aime les pommes." 

Prompting Techniques Zero-shot prompting (ask without examples) Prompt: Translate the following English sentence into French: "The weather is beautiful today." Few-shot prompting (show a few examples) Prompt: Translate the following English sentences into French: Just like this, I love apples." → "J'aime les pommes." Chain-of-thought prompting (encourage step-by-step reasoning) Prompt: If a train travels 60 miles per hour for 3.5 hours, how far does it go? Let's think step by step. 

Role-based prompting (assign the AI a persona or job) Prompt: You are a professional career coach. What advice would you give to someone who wants to switch from teaching to UX design? 

Role-based prompting (assign the AI a persona or job) Prompt: You are a professional career coach. What advice would you give to someone who wants to switch from teaching to UX design? Multimodal prompting (combine text with images or other inputs) Image + Text Prompt: Using the details in this image, create 10 social media captions for the event. 

L ive Chat Prompt Challenge: Type your prompt in chat and we’ll fix one live. 

Case Scenario: Personal brands create higher engagements and conversion rates than business brands. You are a Product Manager on looking to build your Personal brand on LinkedIn to attract Startups you can work with. Share a personal relatable story Startups could demonstrate your experience. 

Things to consider 1. Define the Purpose Clearly Be specific about why you’re telling the story. Example: “I want to share a story that shows my ability to lead cross-functional teams and deliver a product under tight deadlines.” 

Things to consider 2. Provide Context About the Audience Tell the AI who you’re speaking to: startup founders, early- stage startups, tech recruiters, etc. Example: “This story should appeal to founders of early-stage startups who care about lean product development and speed to market.” 

Things to consider 3. Include Personal Details or Specific Moments Share key details the AI can build around — where it happened, what challenge you faced, what role you played. Example: “It was my third week at a healthtech startup when our lead developer quit. I had to pivot the roadmap and keep morale high.” 

Things to consider 4. Specify the Desired Format or Tone Should it sound conversational, inspirational, or analytical? Example: “Keep the tone honest and slightly humorous. Make it sound like a reflective journal post, not a polished case study.” 

Case Scenario: You are a social media manager for a healthy food brand and want to ask AI to create a one week social media content calendar for you, how would you query AI? 

1.Let your AI Model know about your brand voice and audience. For example, who are you speaking to? (e.g., Gen Z, working professionals, fitness enthusiasts?). What tone should the posts have? (e.g., playful, informative, motivational). Things to consider: 

1.Let your AI Model know about your brand voice and audience. For example, who are you speaking to? (e.g., Gen Z, working professionals, fitness enthusiasts?). What tone should the posts have? (e.g., playful, informative, motivational) 2.Platform-Specific Needs. Are you posting on Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, or Facebook? Remember, each platform has its own unique style, content formats, and best times to post. Things to consider: 

1.Let your AI Model know about your brand voice and audience. For example, who are you speaking to? (e.g., Gen Z, working professionals, fitness enthusiasts?). What tone should the posts have? (e.g., playful, informative, motivational) 2.Platform-Specific Needs. Are you posting on Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, or Facebook? Remember, each platform has its own unique style, content formats, and best times to post. 3.Set Goals for the Week. Is it for brand awareness, engagement, sales, product launch, education, etc? This helps AI shape the type of content (e.g., memes vs. carousels vs. reels). Things to consider: 

1.Let your AI Model know about your brand voice and audience. For example, who are you speaking to? (e.g., Gen Z, working professionals, fitness enthusiasts?). What tone should the posts have? (e.g., playful, informative, motivational) 2.Platform-Specific Needs. Are you posting on Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, or Facebook? Remember, each platform has its own unique style, content formats, and best times to post. 3.Set Goals for the Week. Is it for brand awareness, engagement, sales, product launch, education, etc? This helps AI shape the type of content (e.g., memes vs. carousels vs. reels). 4.Key Themes or Campaigns. Do you have themes like “Mental Health Week” or “New Product Launch”? Are there any important dates, events, or hashtags? Things to consider: 

1.Let your AI Model know about your brand voice and audience. For example, who are you speaking to? (e.g., Gen Z, working professionals, fitness enthusiasts?). What tone should the posts have? (e.g., playful, informative, motivational) 2.Platform-Specific Needs. Are you posting on Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, or Facebook? Remember, each platform has its own unique style, content formats, and best times to post. 3.Set Goals for the Week. Is it for brand awareness, engagement, sales, product launch, education, etc? This helps AI shape the type of content (e.g., memes vs. carousels vs. reels). 4.Key Themes or Campaigns. Do you have themes like “Mental Health Week” or “New Product Launch”? Are there any important dates, events, or hashtags? 5.Content Types You Want. E.g., text post, image idea, video script, carousel, poll, story idea, etc. Things to consider: 

1.Let your AI Model know about your brand voice and audience. For example, who are you speaking to? (e.g., Gen Z, working professionals, fitness enthusiasts?). What tone should the posts have? (e.g., playful, informative, motivational) 2.Platform-Specific Needs. Are you posting on Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, or Facebook? Remember, each platform has its own unique style, content formats, and best times to post. 3.Set Goals for the Week. Is it for brand awareness, engagement, sales, product launch, education, etc? This helps AI shape the type of content (e.g., memes vs. carousels vs. reels). 4.Key Themes or Campaigns. Do you have themes like “Mental Health Week” or “New Product Launch”? Are there any important dates, events, or hashtags? 5.Content Types You Want. E.g., text post, image idea, video script, carousel, poll, story idea, etc. 6.Posting Frequency. How many posts per day? Or just once per day? Things to consider: 

Prompting Tips for Fantastic Results Define the role of the AI "You are a social media strategist..." gives it context. Be specific about deliverables Mention you want 7 days, type of posts, etc. Include business or campaign goals Helps align content with outcomes. Describe desired content variety Keeps the calendar engaging and fresh. Tips Why it works Clarify tone and voice Makes the copy consistent with your brand. Provide examples (optional) You can add: “Here’s an example of a great caption I love...” Mention what to avoid e.g., “Avoid sounding corporate or overly robotic.” 

Common Mistakes to Avoid Too vague (“Make me a content calendar”) No direction = generic posts Not specifying platform One size doesn’t fit all Skipping tone of voice May come off-brand No context about business/product Leads to irrelevant content Mistake Why It Hurts Your Output Not reviewing and editing output AI gives drafts, not final posts Provide contradictory instructions It will get confused and repeat the same thing in different ways 

Guess what? No matter how good your prompting is, you can always follow up AI with other prompts like… Add a CTA to each post. Shuffle between “Buy now” and “Click the link in bio”. Add image ideas I could create with Canva. Make the Tuesday post more humorous, etc. 

Q&A 

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