3 ChatGPT Custom Instructions Hacks to Unleash Your Productivity
Transform Your ChatGPT into Personalized Email Assistant, Career Coach, and Language Tutor
🚀 Welcome aboard the newest edition your go-to P@CMU biweekly newsletter for current and aspiring product managers! Join us as we explore groundbreaking happenings in the tech and startup universe, diving into cutting-edge product innovations, thought-provoking insights, and invaluable career wisdom. Stay tuned and let's dive in 🙌
🌟 Empowering ChatGPT with Custom Instructions
On Jul 20th, ChatGPT introduced Custom Instructions, allowing users to provide preferences that will be applied to all future conversations.
Custom instructions take in two pieces of information:
What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses?
How would you like ChatGPT to respond?
With Custom Instructions, you no longer need to repeat preferences each time when asking ChatGPT to perform familiar tasks like writing, coding, researching, etc. The model will remember and apply your instructions automatically.
Custom Instructions is a huge user experience improvement that allows ChatGPT to remember your preferences and assist you in the way you want.
This brings us one step closer to having personalized AI agents. As shared by OpenAI, early testers are using Custom Instructions for:
Expertise calibration: Tailoring expertise level to avoid unnecessary explanations
Language learning: Ongoing language practice with grammar correction
Localization: Establishing context like local laws for lawyers
Novel writing: Maintaining consistent character understanding when writing novels
Response format: Outputting code updates in a unified format
Writing style personalization: Applying the same writing style to all future emails
🚀 How to improve productivity with Custom Instructions?
After experimenting with Custom Instructions, we felt it can be a great boost to productivity, so in this issue we are bringing you three useful Custom Instructions Templates to help you turn your ChatGPT into your personal Email Assistant, Career Coach, and Language Tutor.
📧 Email Composition Assistant
If you already use ChatGPT for email, Custom Instructions improve it by capturing your communications style and professional background.
For example, given the prompt:
💡 Prompt: Compose a follow-up email to the interviewer after my recent Product Manager interview with her.
The same prompt yields a lengthy, unfocused email without Custom Instructions.
With Custom Instructions, ChatGPT generates emails tailored precisely to your needs. This saves time otherwise spent wordsmithing draft after draft to achieve the right tone. For important communications, Custom Instructions help refine your message before sending, without the back-and-forth required to calibrate ChatGPT's response.
👇 Template to customize your Email Assistant:
What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses?
My name: ________
University/Company: ________
Area of Study/ Job Function: ________
Preferred Pronouns: ________
Email Writing Tone: ________
How would you like ChatGPT to respond?
Professional Background: (e.g. I work in a professional environment where clear and concise communication is highly valued)
Response Length: (e.g. I need my messages to be brief while maintaining politeness and professionalism.)
Addressing Style: (e.g. Make sure to get straight to the point without losing any important details.)
💼 Career Coach for Interview Prep
With the right Custom Instructions, ChatGPT can transform into your personal career coach prepping you for any question.
Take a Product Manager interview question as an example:
💡 Prompt: Imagine you are the PM for Zillow Apartment rentals. How would you improve the experience?
Without Custom Instructions, ChatGPT normally responds with a generic list of ideas. Useful, but not a structured framework to demonstrate strategic thinking.
With Custom Instructions, you can share your specific background, interests, and target role. Then provide the optimal framework for answering PM interview questions. ChatGPT will now roleplay the interview, responding as a strong candidate applying your tailored structure.
👇 Template to customize your personal Career Coach.
What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses?
I am an undergraduate student at ________, majoring in ________.
I am keenly interested in transitioning into a ________ role in a tech company after my graduation.
I enjoy discussing ________, ________, and ________, and can do so for hours.
My immediate goal is to secure a ________ role in a ________.
How would you like ChatGPT to respond?
You are a ________ candidate engaging in a live interview, skillfully providing exceptional responses to stand out and demonstrate your qualifications effectively.
Responses should be clear and concise but thorough enough to give me a comprehensive understanding of the topic at hand.
I prefer a mix of formal and casual language, the language should mirror the professional yet innovative nature of the tech industry.
Here is the framework to use: [provide the framework you use]
🌍 Personal Language Tutor
Previously, in our first newsletter back in May, we discussed how GPT-4 powers personalized Duolingo lessons with Explain My Answer and Roleplay. These features, however, are only available in Duolingo Max, a subscription tier above Super Duolingo.
Well, with the right Custom Instructions, you can unlock a similar customized language learning experience with ChatGPT.
💡 Prompt: How do I order and pay the bill at a restaurant in France?
With Custom Instructions, you can specify your language learning goals and interest in conversational fluency. ChatGPT will now generate a dialogue between native French speakers in a restaurant scenario, followed by translations. This provides an engaging, real-world context to pick up nuances in vocabulary and phrasing.
With Custom Instructions, you can guide the model on your proficiency level, interests, and preferred learning methods. ChatGPT can go beyond vocabulary lists to provide contextual conversations for daily language practice. For example, it can generate dialogues between native French speakers in different scenario, with translations to support comprehension.
👇 Template to customize your personal Language Tutor.
What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses?
I am passionate about language learning and improving my language skills, especially in daily conversations.
My primary goal is to become fluent in ________
Some of my interests include ________
I love discussing language learning techniques, linguistic nuances, and cultural aspects related to languages.
I'm interested in a mix of practical language use and theoretical knowledge.
How would you like ChatGPT to respond?
Write a conversation between two fictional characters (both native ________) given the provided situation as they converse in casual, daily languages.
It's okay to have concise responses, but I appreciate explanations and examples to help me understand better.
Please address me by ________.
It's essential for ChatGPT to remain neutral and objective. However, feel free to provide insights and tips on language learning strategies.
As of now, ChatGPT does not support saving multiple Custom Instructions. However, you can create a convenient database to store your most useful prompts, ensuring quick access whenever you need them 👇
💡What are the implications of Custom Instructions?
(1) For Individual Users: Better User Experience + More Accessibility
For individual users, it greatly improves accessibility - system prompts were previously only available to developers. Now anyone can customize ChatGPT's responses through its user interface.
(2) For AI startups: Harder Times for Generic GPT Wrappers
In a recent viral tweet by Sam Hogan, founder of AI startup ContextBots, he broke down which companies and models are emerging as winners or losers six months into the AI boom. With the release of Context Instructions, his opinion becomes even more relevant.
👀 Losers
Overfunded startups like Jasper, which raised $100M+ for a "thin wrapper" on OpenAI, are struggling as its generic product cannot find product-market fit without differentiation.
VC-backed chatbot teams who are unable to convince enterprises to buy their products since enterprise executives are inclined to leverage open-source tools and build their own in-house AI application rather than buying from new startups. .
👑 Winners
Tech giants rapidly deploying in-house AI, like Google (Bard), Microsoft (New Bing, CoPilot), Meta (Llama 2).
Solo developers rapidly launching niche AI SaaS products for underserved niche markets, which they often dominate. This is sometimes called "mirco-saas.” Without pressure from VCs, indie developers move fast and respond to market fast.
🚀 Moonshots
Startups fundamentally transforming industries with cutting-edge tech. He namechecks Cursor (an AI-first Code Editor), Harvey AI (custom LLMs for elite law firms), and Runway ML (text-to-video) as potential moonshots.
AI startups without a strong competitive edge, particularly those differentiating only through system prompts, should consider pivoting to more ambitious visions beyond chatbots. As OpenAI continues enhancing ChatGPT's user experience, constructing highly accurate conversational AI becomes increasingly accessible.
Companies relying on proprietary prompts for basic chatbot use cases will struggle to stand out in a commoditized market. Rather than competing directly with an AI giant like OpenAI, they can target specialized needs or pioneer groundbreaking applications to secure a defensible niche.
That's a wrap for this edition of Delve-In!
Custom Instructions is in Beta for Plus users.
Try out our templates and share your favorite use cases!
Here is how Sam Altman is using Custom Instructions for your reference:
🔗 Links to Sources
Custom instructions for ChatGPT
🥷 Who’s behind the scenes?
Thanks for reading this week’s Sync In by P@CMU! The editors behind this work is Head of Newsletter at P@CMU Alina Fang.
🙌 Follow Us
We're thrilled to co-curate future content with you! Your thoughts and feedback on our content are invaluable to us. Don't hesitate to share your opinions and send us some positive energy via the channels provided below.
🌱 Join the Community
Join our Slack channel to stay in the loop with upcoming events, discover incredible resources and opportunities, unleash your curiosity with product-related queries, and experience so much more! Don't miss out on the excitement – join us today 🙌