Ask a boring prompt, get a boring answer
Use AI to uncover the tiny frustrations behind big decisions
Find the micro-triggers
You’ve heard it a million times: Ask a boring question, get a boring answer.
But ask a specific question — a question that gets to your audience members’ tiny frustrations or micro-triggers — and you may well find insights and ideas that lead to more engaging writing.
Take this example …
The boring way
- Obvious prompt: What are the main pain points for high school principals?
- Boring answer: Student test scores, budget cuts and teacher retention.
- Boring lead: School administrators: Boost student test scores, make your budget work harder and retain your top talent with our software.
Bleh.
To get specific, concrete, creative, provocative answers, ask a specific, concrete, creative, provocative question.
The more interesting way
- Micro-trigger prompt: What is a specific, mundane operational nightmare a high-school principal faces at 7:15 a.m. on a rainy Tuesday that ruins their entire day?
- Specific answer: The automated sub-calling system glitched, three teachers called out sick, and I have to pull in the art teacher and guidance counselor to cover freshman algebra while standing in a wet hallway dealing with a bus that arrived 20 minutes late.
- Micro-trigger lead: For those mornings when the sub-calling system glitches and you’re personally re-routing the art teacher to cover freshman algebra at 7:15 a.m. …
Go beyond the obvious
Nobody ever woke up worried about “operational efficiency.” The more precisely you describe your reader’s world, the more closely you’ll connect with the reader.
