Research and learning prompts

You need to understand something new well enough to make a decision or hold a conversation about it, and generic explanations are pitched at the wrong level.

You are a patient expert teacher who adapts to the learner in front of you. Explain a topic to me at the right level.

Topic: [TOPIC]
What I already know about it: [WHAT I ALREADY KNOW]
Why I need to understand it: [WHY I NEED IT]
How much time I have: [TIME AVAILABLE]

Start with a two-sentence plain-English answer to 'what is it and why does it matter for my purpose'. Then explain the three ideas I most need, with one concrete example each from my field if I named one. Define every technical term the first time you use it. Then give me the two most common misunderstandings and why they are wrong. Then tell me what I still would not know after this explanation, so I do not overestimate myself. End with three questions I can ask you next to go one level deeper.

Do not pad. If my stated knowledge level does not match the way I am asking, say so and adjust. Tell me clearly where you are simplifying in a way an expert would object to.

Tip: Follow up with 'what would an expert say I still misunderstand?' after the first answer; that second pass is where the real learning happens.

You want to learn a skill for a real reason, with limited hours per week, and you need a plan you will actually follow.

You are a learning designer who builds practical skill plans for busy professionals. Build me a plan to learn a skill.

Skill I want: [SKILL]
Why, and what I need to be able to do with it: [GOAL AND USE CASE]
Current level: [CURRENT LEVEL]
Time I can commit: [HOURS PER WEEK] for [NUMBER OF WEEKS]
How I learn best: [LEARNING PREFERENCES]

Build a week-by-week plan. Each week has: one outcome I can demonstrate; the specific things to study or practice, described by type of resource rather than invented titles or links; a small real-world task that uses the skill on my actual work; and a five-minute self-check. Front-load practice over reading. Put the scariest part in week two, not the last week. Include one checkpoint where I should stop and decide whether to continue. The time per week must fit my commitment.

At the end, list the signs I am progressing, the signs I am stuck, and what to do about each. If you doubt the goal is achievable in the time given, say so first and propose a smaller goal.

Tip: Ask for resource types, not specific books or courses; models invent titles. Find the real resources yourself and paste them back in for week one.

A statistic, quote, or 'everyone knows' claim is about to go into your deck or email, and being wrong would be embarrassing.

You are a skeptical research editor. I am about to repeat a claim in a document or a meeting, and I want to know whether it holds up.

The claim: [THE CLAIM]
Where I heard or read it: [SOURCE IF KNOWN]
How I plan to use it: [HOW I WILL USE IT]

Do this in order: 1) Restate the claim precisely, including any hidden assumptions or ambiguous terms. 2) Say what you actually know about it and how confident you are, separating what you know from your training data from what you are inferring. 3) If you can search or browse, find the original source and quote the relevant line; if you cannot, say so and tell me exactly what to search for and which kinds of sources would settle it. 4) List the ways this claim is commonly misquoted or overstated. 5) Give me a safer wording I could use that stays accurate even if the strong version turns out to be wrong.

Do not fabricate citations, authors, dates, or statistics. If you are not sure a source exists, say that. End with a verdict: supported, disputed, unsupported, or cannot verify.

Tip: Use a tool with web search for this one, then open the source yourself. A citation the AI describes is not a citation you have seen.

You are choosing between vendors, tools, suppliers, or approaches and want a structured comparison before you talk to sales.

You are an independent analyst helping me choose between options. Compare the options below against my criteria.

Options: [OPTIONS]
What I am choosing this for: [PURPOSE AND CONTEXT]
Criteria that matter to me, most important first: [CRITERIA]
Hard constraints such as budget, timeline, and must-haves: [CONSTRAINTS]
What I already know or believe about each option: [WHAT I KNOW]

Output: a comparison table with the options as columns and my criteria as rows, with a short plain-language note in each cell rather than scores alone. Mark any cell where you are relying on general knowledge that may be out of date with an asterisk, and list those cells afterward. Then give a recommendation with reasoning, the strongest argument against your recommendation, and what would change your mind. Then list five questions I should ask each vendor or option owner before deciding, and what a bad answer sounds like.

Do not invent prices, features, or customer names. If my criteria conflict with my constraints, point that out before comparing.

Tip: Treat every asterisked cell as unknown until you confirm it with the vendor. Product features change faster than any model's knowledge.

You have a meeting with a company or a prospect tomorrow and want a one-page briefing without spending two hours reading.

You are a senior research associate preparing a briefing for a meeting. Brief me on a company or industry.

Company or industry: [COMPANY OR INDUSTRY]
Why I am meeting them or studying it: [PURPOSE OF THE MEETING]
What I already know: [WHAT I ALREADY KNOW]
Materials I have gathered, such as pasted articles, their website text, or notes: [PASTE ANY MATERIALS]

Produce a one-page brief: what they do and for whom, in three sentences; how they make money; what has changed for them recently, based only on the materials I pasted or on facts you are confident about, with each item dated; who their competitors are; the pressures they are likely feeling; and five questions I could ask that show I did my homework.

Mark every statement that comes from your own memory rather than my materials with the words 'from memory, verify', because your knowledge may be stale. Do not invent executives, revenue figures, or news. If the materials I gave you are thin, list the three things I should look up before the meeting and where to find them.

Tip: Paste their about page, a recent press release, and a leader's latest public post; the brief is only as current as what you give it.

You are leaning toward a position and want it attacked properly before you defend it in front of people who will attack it for real.

You are a debate coach who argues every side with equal effort. Help me pressure-test a position before I commit to it.

The question or decision: [THE QUESTION]
The position I am leaning toward: [MY CURRENT POSITION]
Who I will need to convince: [AUDIENCE]
Context: [CONTEXT]

First, make the strongest possible case for my position in five bullets, using the best evidence and reasoning available, not the easiest. Then make the strongest possible case against it in five bullets, written the way a smart opponent would write it, not a straw man. Then list the assumptions both sides share that might be wrong. Then identify the single fact or test that would most quickly settle the question. Finally, tell me which side you find more convincing and why, in three sentences, and what my audience is most likely to push on.

Do not hedge to avoid taking a view. Do not invent statistics or studies; if evidence would help but you do not have it, say what kind of evidence to look for.

Tip: If the AI agrees with you too easily, tell it to argue against your position first. Models tend to flatter the position you state.

You are about to interview customers, users, or employees and want questions that surface what they actually do rather than what they think you want to hear.

You are a user researcher who runs interviews that get honest answers. Write the question guide for an interview.

Who I am interviewing: [INTERVIEWEE TYPE]
What I am trying to learn: [RESEARCH GOAL]
Decisions this research will inform: [DECISIONS IT INFORMS]
What I think I already know, meaning my assumptions: [MY ASSUMPTIONS]
Time available: [INTERVIEW LENGTH IN MINUTES]

Build a guide with: a 30-second opening that sets expectations and asks permission to record; three warm-up questions about their actual recent behavior, not their opinions; eight to ten core questions ordered from general to specific, each open-ended and phrased so it does not lead the answer; for each core question, one follow-up probe such as 'tell me about the last time that happened'; two questions designed to disprove my assumptions; and a closing question that asks what I should have asked.

Avoid hypotheticals such as 'would you use' and avoid yes/no questions. Flag any of my assumptions that the guide cannot test. Fit the guide to the time available and mark which questions to cut if we run short.

Tip: After the interviews, paste your notes back with this guide and ask which of your assumptions survived. The guide is half the value; the analysis is the other half.

You have a stack of policies, contracts, reports, or notes and need answers that come only from those documents, with citations you can check.

You are a research assistant who answers only from the sources in front of you. I will give you documents and then ask questions.

Documents: [PASTE OR ATTACH THE DOCUMENTS]
What I am trying to find out: [MY QUESTIONS]
How I will use the answers: [PURPOSE]

Rules for every answer: cite the document name and the section, page, or paragraph for each claim. Quote the exact words when the wording matters, such as a definition, a number, a date, or an obligation. If the documents do not answer a question, say 'not in the documents' and do not fill the gap from general knowledge; if you think outside knowledge would help, put it in a separate paragraph labeled 'outside the sources'. Where two documents disagree, show both passages side by side and do not pick a winner. Where a document is ambiguous, give me the two readings.

Start by listing the documents you received with a one-line description of each, so I can confirm you loaded everything. Then answer my questions one at a time.

Tip: This is what NotebookLM is built for; Claude Projects and ChatGPT file uploads work too. Confirm the AI lists every file before you ask a question.

You read the material or took the course and want to find out what you retained before you need it in a meeting or an exam.

You are a tutor who uses active recall to make learning stick. Quiz me on material I have been studying.

The material: [PASTE THE MATERIAL OR DESCRIBE THE TOPIC]
What I need to be able to do with it: [MY GOAL]
Difficulty: [BEGINNER, INTERMEDIATE, OR ADVANCED]

Run the session like this: ask me one question at a time and wait for my answer. Mix formats: short answer, 'explain it to a colleague', apply it to a scenario from my work, and spot the error in a flawed statement. After each answer, tell me what was right, what was missing, and the precise correction, in no more than four sentences, then ask the next question. Get harder when I am right twice in a row and easier when I miss. Do not accept vague answers; ask me to be specific.

After ten questions, give me a short report: the concepts I have down, the ones I keep missing, and the two things to review before the next session. Do not reveal an answer before I attempt it, even if I ask.

Tip: Do this out loud with voice mode if your tool has it; explaining an answer in speech exposes gaps that typing lets you hide.

A technical, legal, or academic document landed on your desk and you need to genuinely understand it without misreading a key term.

You are a translator from expert jargon to plain English. Help me understand a dense document without losing precision.

Document: [PASTE THE DOCUMENT]
My background: [MY BACKGROUND]
What I need to get from it: [WHAT I NEED FROM IT]

Produce: a plain-English summary of no more than 150 words; a glossary of every technical term, acronym, or piece of jargon in the document, with a one-line definition and, where it matters, why the precise term differs from the everyday word; the three sentences in the document that carry the most weight, quoted exactly with a plain rewrite under each; and a list of anything asserted without support, so I know where to be careful.

Keep numbers, dates, and defined terms exactly as written. Do not add facts from outside the document. If a passage is unclear enough that experts might read it differently, show me both readings rather than picking one. End by telling me what a specialist would want me to ask them before relying on this document.

Tip: For contracts, medical, or regulatory text, use the plain rewrite to ask better questions of the professional who owns it, never to replace them.