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AI

Advanced techniques for real work

Lesson 2 gets you to good. This lesson gets you from good sometimes to good reliably on real tasks, techniques that make strong prompts repeatable.

Lesson 3

Good sometimes vs good reliably.

Advanced prompting techniques

Sharp refinementsNegative constraintsExamplesPersona
Persona, examples, negative constraints, sharp refinements, good reliably, not sometimes.

Core principles

  1. Persona seeding: not just role but disposition and priorities, "HR partner who asks hard questions about timelines and communication gaps."
  2. Priming with examples: one-shot or few-shot, paste what good looks like; removes ambiguity faster than description.
  3. Negative constraints: tell Copilot what not to do, no hedging, no bullet points, no synergy-speak, fixes recurring failure modes.
  4. Targeted refinement: name location, what is wrong, what you want, not "make it better." Three to five iterations is normal; after eight, rewrite the original prompt.
  5. Meta-prompt: ask what information the model needs before the real request, use its list to build the final prompt.
  6. Temperature through language: "stick to source material" vs "explore unconventional angles."

Check yourself

What is the purpose of a meta-prompt?

Do this in Copilot

Try persona seeding or priming with examples on a real task this week.

Answer the model's questions, then run the real prompt with that context.

Meta-prompt

I need help drafting a difficult conversation email to a vendor who missed three deadlines. Before I give details, what five pieces of information would make your response actually useful? List them.
Open Copilot →
  • Meta-prompt
  • Negative constraints
  • Negative constraint example: Draft this email without apologizing for the ask. State it plainly.
  • Refinement example: The third paragraph is too abstract. Rewrite with one concrete example. Keep under 150 words.

Did you run this in Copilot? Mark complete when you have tried it.

Next lesson: Building and Using a Personal Prompt Library →