Edgar Cervantes/Android Authority
long story short
- Google has released a new guide on how to create optimal prompts for Gemini in Workspace.
- The manual states that four criteria should be considered when developing prompts: role, task, context, and format.
- Prompts that are approximately 21 words in length tend to be most successful.
To get the most out of a chatbot like Gemini, you need to know how to build prompts effectively. However, not everyone is an expert in this field. To help in this regard, Google has just released a crash course on the subject in the form of a 45-page manual.
This manual is called “Tips Guide 101” and is designed to help enterprise users get started quickly when using Gemini. Although this guide was written with Workspace in mind, the tips provided can also help the average user.
This guide focuses on several different careers, including executives and entrepreneurs, human resources, customer service, marketing, project management, and sales. Notably, the manual highlights four criteria you should consider when considering tips.
- character: Who are you
- Task: What do you want the AI to do (summarize, change tone, etc.)
- context: Detailed description
- Format: Key points, character limit, etc.
You can see in the excerpt below that all four details are included in the prompt.
The manual further adds that prompts should naturally “write complete thoughts in complete sentences.” It also suggests that you should track any output with follow-up prompts. According to the company, “the most successful prompts averaged about 21 words.” Finally, it warned that users should review the results to “ensure clarity, relevance, and accuracy.”
At the end of this guide, Google provides some additional tips that users can follow:
- Come apart. If you want Gemini for Workspace to perform multiple related tasks, group them into
Separate tips. - Give constraints. To generate specific results, include details in the prompt, such as character limits
Or the number of options you want to generate. - Assigning Roles. To encourage creativity, assign a role.You can do this by using language launch prompts
For example: “You are the head of the creative department of a leading advertising agency…” - Ask for feedback. In a conversation with Gemini at gemini.google.com, tell it that you are giving it a project, including all the details you have and everything you know, and then describe the output you want. Continue the conversation by asking questions like, “What questions do you have for me that would help you provide the best output?”
- Consider tone. Customize prompts to fit your target audience and desired content tone.
Request a specific tone in your output, such as formal, informal, technical, creative, or casual. - Let’s put it another way. Fine-tune your prompts if the results don’t match your expectations or what you believe
There is room for improvement. An iterative process of review and refinement usually produces better results.
This is just a quick overview of what is covered in the Tip Guide manual. But you can find out all about it by downloading the guide yourself.