HomeCasa How to improve a bad prompt
A diagnostic process to find out why a prompt is not working and how to fix it, with a before-and-after example and a prompt to let the AI help you.
When the AI answers with something generic, too long or simply wrong, the problem is usually the prompt. The good news: it can almost always be fixed.
Quick diagnosis
Read the answer and ask yourself:
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Generic answer | Missing context | Add audience, situation and concrete data |
| Too long or too short | No limit | State the number of words, points or paragraphs |
| Wrong tone | Not specified | Describe the tone and who it is for |
| Invents data | You asked for something it does not know | Provide the data or ask it to flag unknowns |
| Hard-to-use format | No format requested | Ask for a specific table, list or template |
| Ignores an instruction | Confusing or contradictory prompt | Order, number and remove conflicting instructions |
Before and after
Before
Give me ideas for my business.
After
I run an online store selling handmade ceramics from Granada. I mostly sell mugs and plates to customers aged 30-50. Sales drop in January and February.
Give me 8 concrete ideas to increase sales in those months with a budget under €500. For each idea include: what to do, approximate cost, effort (low/medium/high) and how to measure whether it works. Present the ideas in a table ordered from lowest to highest effort.
Change one thing at a time
If you change five things at once and the result improves, you will not know what worked. Adjust one element, test and compare.
Ask the AI for help
You can use the AI to improve your prompts:
This is my prompt:
"""
[your prompt]
"""
And this is the answer I got:
"""
[answer]
"""
I wanted to achieve [what you wanted]. Explain why the prompt did not
achieve it and rewrite it so it works. Ask me any questions you need first.Turn the good prompt into a template
Once you have a version that works, replace the specific data with variables and save it for reuse.