Think Like a Designer to Write Better AI Prompts

Back when I worked at Liberty Hardware, a Masco company, we did some projects with IDEO. They are a global design company. From them, I learned something called Design Thinking. It’s a way of solving problems by asking questions, gaining insights, and getting creative about what people really need. I used those skills and methodology while working in product development and innovation management.

Today, I still use that same process for my clients —and especially when I’m using AI tools like ChatGPT.

Yes, even robots work better when you think like a designer.

Let me show you how.

Why ChatGPT Doesn’t Always Give Great Answers

If you’ve ever tried ChatGPT and thought, “This wasn’t very helpful,” you’re not alone. A lot of people ask it quick questions and get back boring or random answers.

But here’s the secret:

The better your prompt, the better the answer.

When I first started using ChatGPT in January of 2023, I realized something fast:

If I took a little time to write a better question (called a prompt), I got way better results.

My days in a former career in Information Technology taught me this simple rule: Garbage In, Garbage Out.

It’s just like cooking a great dinner: if you use better ingredients, you get a better meal.

That’s when I started using our D4 Method to write prompts—just like a designer solving a problem.

My 4-Step D4 Method for ChatGPT Prompts

Let me break it down for you. I call it D4 because it has four steps, and they all start with the letter D. These steps work for any of the LLM’s (ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Gemini, Copilot, DeepSeek, Manus, etc.) that you might use.

1. DEFINE – Who Should ChatGPT Be?

Before you ask a question, tell ChatGPT who you want it to be. Give it a role to play.

Do you want it to act like a teacher? A coach? A business expert?

Example: “You are a coach helping a student write a school speech.”

2. DISCOVER – What Does It Need to Know?

Next, tell ChatGPT about your situation or problem. It needs the background info, the context and data of your specific situation. While it knows a lot of things, it doesn’t know everything in the world.

What’s going on in your situation? What do you already know that could help with the solution?

Note: If you don’t have much info, ask ChatGPT to help you figure it out first. This is often the better place to start. Use ChatGPT or the LLM of your choice to do the discovery work first. Then when you have discovered new information or research, you can use that in your prompt.

Sometimes, you may have more advanced usages where you have data or documents that you want to include. This could even be the research you did and copied into a document.

You need to reference those in this step. You can tell the LLM that you are going to upload a document or some data. Then you could tell it what that data represents and how it should be used or considered.

The more details you give, the better it can help.

Example: “This is for my team at work. We’re talking about how to be better leaders. I want my speech to be about how good leaders are also good listeners. We often fail to listen well, and it is causing issues on our team. We miscommunicate and we miss our goals. We need to improve our listening skills so that we can better support each other and hit our goals.”

Yes, it seems like a lot to enter for a prompt. But trust me – you want to give it plenty of context so that it can give you better results. This is time well spent on the front end. (More on that below.)

3. DESIGN – What Do You Want It to Do?

Now ask your question or make your request. What do you want help with?

Be clear. What’s the problem you want to solve?

Examples: “Can you help me write a 3-minute speech about that?” or “Create a mini-course on this topic that I can use with my team.” Or “Brainstorm for me 5 different topics and discussion questions that we could discuss at our next team meeting for a learning activity.”

4. DELIVER – What Should It Look Like?

Finally, tell ChatGPT how you want the answer to look.

Do you want:

• A list?
• A story?
• A script?
• A table?

Example: “Give me a discussion guide that has 3 topics with tips and techniques, and 2 discussion questions for each one. Create it in a document in Word format.”

How Should You Spend Your Time?

Here’s what I’ve learned works well for me when prompting:

1. 50%. Spend 50% of your time thinking about what you want and writing your prompt. This includes doing the Discovery work before you start the final prompt. You may need to start first with some research and discovery prompts to get your thoughts organized before making your request.
2. 25%. Spend 25% of your time chatting with ChatGPT. This includes writing your first prompt, asking it questions about what it “thinks”, asking for changes or more help. Think of the prompting phase as a collaborative chat with a brainstorm partner. Before you finish a prompt, you can type something like this, “If there’s anything you would expect from me to generate a good response, ask me before you start.”
3. 25%. Spend the last 25% of your efforts editing the content to make sure it sounds like you. This includes things like editing, correcting, and polishing so that it sounds like you or like the way you want it to.

Most people rush the prompting part. But if you take your time upfront, ChatGPT or any LLM works so much better.

Final Thought for Designing Prompts

You don’t have to be a tech wizard or a coder to use ChatGPT. But you do need to think carefully.

Treat your prompt like a design project. Think about the problem you’re trying to solve, or what you need or want.

Give it the info it needs (background, data, context). And ask clearly and give clear instructions.

The better your instructions, the better your results.

And who knows? Maybe you'll be designing prompts like a pro in no time.