Prompt better · Practical guide

Make AI challenge your first idea

Beginner · Published 2026-10-17 · Reviewed 2026-10-05

Tools: Multi-tool
Audience: People getting started with AI
Topic: Prompt better

Colourful sticky notes arranged for planning and brainstorming

You’ll finish with: a list of assumptions and evidence needed before deciding.

AI will often help you develop your first idea. It is also useful for asking whether that idea deserves the effort. Invite a specific challenge, rather than requesting a dramatic argument for its own sake.

Set up

Allow 20 minutes. Use a chat app and one decision with clear constraints. This is a thinking exercise, not a substitute for the person who owns the decision.

Download this guide’s practice sheet ↓

Try this example

FICTIONAL PRACTICE MATERIAL
Proposal: replace the weekly 30-minute handover call with a shared document. Team: six people, two time zones. Current problem: actions get lost. Unknown: whether everyone reads written updates.

Do the task

State the proposal and the problem separately.
Ask for the strongest practical objection and a cheaper alternative.
Choose a small test that could change your mind, then record the evidence needed.

Your reusable prompt

Challenge this proposal. Give two plausible failure modes, one simpler alternative and a one-week test. Label assumptions. Do not claim to know what the team prefers.

PRACTICE INPUT
Proposal: replace the weekly 30-minute handover call with a shared document. Team: six people, two time zones. Current problem: actions get lost. Unknown: whether everyone reads written updates.

Refine your result

Now explain what evidence would support keeping the call. Judge both options against finding and completing actions, not meeting time alone.

Check the result

A useful answer might propose a structured action list before cancelling the call. It should identify unread updates as an uncertainty, not declare the team resistant to change.

Save and reuse

Save your decision question, test and review date. Revisit after collecting real team feedback.

Sources and notes

Writing clear prompts Checked 2026-10-05

The practice input and teaching prompt are original 5HO material. Examples are fictional; they are not screenshots or claims of a completed real-world task.
Official documentation supports the relevant product concepts. Setup availability depends on your account; where a guide offers a fallback, it does not prove the connected capability worked.