How to Write Better AI Prompts: The Lean Framework

Most “prompt engineering” advice online is either too abstract (“be specific!”) or too much (a 12-part template you'll never actually use). This is the version I actually use — 4 parts, on one sticky note.

The Lean prompt framework: R.G.C.F.

1. Role — who is the AI pretending to be?
2. Goal — what should be true when it's done?
3. Context — what does it need to know that it can't guess?
4. Format — what should the output look like?

See it in action

Weak prompt

Write me a LinkedIn post about our new feature.

Same request, with R.G.C.F.

Role: You're a B2B copywriter who writes like a calm senior product person. Goal: Make senior operations leaders click through to read the launch post. Context: The feature is [X]. It saves them ~2 hours per week on [Y]. Our voice avoids hype and emoji. Format: 3 short paragraphs, ≤ 120 words total. Hook, insight, single CTA link.

Same model. Same feature. Wildly different output.

The 3 mistakes that kill 80% of prompts

1. No role → the AI defaults to a bland assistant voice.
2. Fuzzy goal (“make it good”) → you'll get generic. Say what success looks like.
3. No format → you'll get a wall of text you have to reformat by hand.

Save your best prompts

The people getting the most out of AI aren't better writers. They just stopped starting from scratch. Keep a doc, a Notion page, or a spreadsheet with your best R.G.C.F. prompts, one per row. In a month you'll have a library that's more valuable than any $99 prompt pack — because it's tuned to you.

Want a printable one-pager version of this framework plus 20 ready-made prompts? Grab the free PDF on the homepage.