Google releases ‘prompting guide’ with tips for Gemini in Workspace

At Cloud Next 2024, Google published a “prompting guide” for Gemini in Workspace, especially in Gmail and Docs.

This handbook (April 2024 edition) identifies “four main areas to consider when writing an effective prompt”: 

• Persona: Who you are
• Task: What you need Gemini to do (write, summarize, change the tone, etc.)
• Context: “Provide as much context as possible.” This could be a written description or referencing an existing document in Google Drive using the @-menu
• Format: Bullet points, talking points, specifying character count limits, etc.

Prompts, which should be written naturally with “complete thoughts in full sentence,” don’t need all four especially in the initial message to Gemini/Help me write. Google says “using a few will help,” while what you write should be concise and avoid jargon.

You will likely need to try a few different approaches for your prompt if you don’t get your desired outcome the first time.

There’s a particularly big emphasis on “mak[ing] it a conversation” with follow-up prompts that include more of the four areas.

Referring to prompting as an art, Google found during the Workspace Labs beta program that the “most successful prompts average around 21 words.” 

Coming in at 45 pages, there are example personas and prompts that go through refinements for: Customer service, Executives and entrepreneurs, Human resources, Marketing , Project management, Sales. Ultimately, Google says to review outputs for “clarity, relevance, and accuracy” before using it.  

Additional tips include:

• Break it up. If you want Gemini for Workspace to perform several related tasks, break them into separate prompts.
• Give constraints. To generate specific results, include details in your prompt such as character count limits or the number of options you’d like to generate.
• Assign a role. To encourage creativity, assign a role. You can do this by starting your prompt with language like: “You are the head of a creative department for a leading advertising agency …”
• Ask for feedback. In your conversation with Gemini at gemini.google.com, tell it that you’re giving it a project, include 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. Tailor your prompts to suit your intended audience and desired tone of the content. Ask for a specific tone such as formal, informal, technical, creative, or casual in the output.
• Say it another way. Fine-tune your prompts if the results don’t meet your expectations or if you believe there’s room for improvement. An iterative process of review and refinement often yields better results.

You can download the guide here.