EP07 - Prompt Engineering 101

In this episode of the Professor Insight Podcast, we break down one of the most in-demand skills in today’s AI-powered world: prompt engineering. With more companies actively hiring prompt engineers and more people using tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude in their daily workflows, knowing how to craft effective prompts is no longer optional — it is essential. Drawing from my own deep dive into research papers, online courses, and hands-on experimentation, I introduce a practical, proven approach to prompt design: Google’s Five-Step Prompting Framework.

We explore each step in this accessible model — Task, Context, References, Evaluate, and Iterate — and I share real-world examples to help you apply these concepts right away. Whether you are struggling to get useful responses from your AI tools or simply want to improve how you interact with language models, this episode provides a structured foundation for writing better, clearer, and more effective prompts. We also touch on helpful techniques like using personas, setting output formats, and refining your instructions when things don’t quite work as expected.

This is your go-to guide for Prompt Engineering 101, and it is perfect for beginners or anyone looking to sharpen their skills. But that’s not all — as I put this episode together, I realised there was still so much more to explore. That is why I’m launching a follow-up two-part special series focused on advanced prompt engineering, where we will cover more technical strategies for guiding language models to reason, reflect, and act with greater sophistication.