9 Ways to Hire ChatGPT as Your Devil’s Advocate

Technormal
9 min readSep 8, 2023

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Devil’s Advocates can drive you crazy. They’re also essential on every team.

Every visionary needs a sounding board, a constructive critic to help illuminate those pesky blind spots that can often elude even the sharpest minds. Enter ChatGPT, your virtual skeptic, designed to offer alternative perspectives, digging deep to uncover both the gold and the grit in your proposals, products, or pitches.

Whether working solo or in a team, this tool facilitates healthy debates, bringing to light perspectives you hadn’t considered. But remember, just like that ever-so-critical team member, you’re at liberty to either embrace or dismiss its input.

Prepare for a rich dialogue as you engage with ChatGPT. This isn’t about issuing commands; it’s about nurturing a conversation, one that’s grounded in respect and open to exploring a vast landscape of viewpoints.

Now, how can ChatGPT serve you best? Here’s a guide to unlock the optimal use of this tool with precision.

1. Co-hosting Your Team Ideation Session

If only there were some sort of AI solution to cohost my team brainstorm with me…

Harness ChatGPT’s potential to foster deeper thinking during your brainstorming sessions, helping to refine ideas at the embryonic stage.

The Prompt for ChatGPT

Hello ChatGPT, today you are co-hosting our team’s ideation session. As the world’s leading expert in facilitating brainstorming sessions, your role is to challenge us to think deeper and from multiple perspectives. Here are the ideas we have so far:

Idea 1: (Detail Here)

Idea 2: (Detail Here)

For each idea, provide us with:

Contrarian Viewpoints: What are some opposing viewpoints or criticisms others might have regarding this idea?

Potential Enhancements: How can we build upon these ideas to make them even more robust and appealing?

Unseen Opportunities: Are there any opportunities we might be missing with these initial concepts?

Feel free to point out where our ideas shine and propose ways to refine any aspects that may be lacking. Remember, your input will be instrumental in helping us craft well-rounded and thoroughly considered concepts.

Why This Works

  • Expert Role Assignment: Assigning ChatGPT the role of a top-notch facilitator brings a level of expertise to the brainstorming session, encouraging deep and nuanced insights.
  • Diverse Perspective Analysis: The prompt encourages the exploration of each idea from various angles, including potential criticisms and opportunities, ensuring a well-rounded discussion.
  • Focus on Enhancement: Besides highlighting the potential pitfalls, the prompt also focuses on enhancing the ideas, fostering a constructive and progressive brainstorming session.

2. Finding Product Development Issues

And see…THIS is how we’ll double our production of blue coats for white men. Any questions?

Utilize ChatGPT to meticulously scrutinize your product blueprint before hitting the prototype phase, pinpointing potential pitfalls and areas for enhancement.

The Prompt for ChatGPT

Hello ChatGPT, I’m preparing to enter the prototype phase of our product development and before I do that, I would like you to assume the role of a seasoned product development expert. I will share the current blueprint and specifics of the product. I want you to:

- Identify potential bottlenecks that could hamper the production process.
- Suggest proactive solutions to eliminate identified bottlenecks.
- Recommend innovative features or modifications that could potentially elevate the product.

(Paste Product Blueprint Here)

Your insights will be instrumental in refining our blueprint to foster a smooth and efficient development process.

Why This Works

Providing ChatGPT with a specific role and clear directives encourages a deep and meticulous analysis, unearthing potential issues and offering innovative solutions, thereby priming the product for success right from the developmental stage.

3. Poking Holes in Your Pitch

Annoying. But necessary.

Before presenting it to stakeholders, perfect your pitch with ChatGPT to create a vivid, compelling narrative that showcases your product’s unique selling points effectively.

The Prompt for ChatGPT

Hello ChatGPT, I am presenting you with a portion of a pitch I’m preparing for potential investors. My aspiration is to paint a vivid and compelling picture of our product’s unique selling points, while fostering trust and sparking excitement amongst our audience. Assume the role of the world’s leading expert in pitch analysis and provide me with feedback honing in on the following areas:

- Clarity: Identify any sentences or phrases that might come off as vague or ambiguous to the audience. How can I reformulate them to be crystal clear?
- Engagement: Are there segments where I can amplify the excitement through more vivid storytelling or dynamic language?
- Persuasiveness: Highlight sections where the argument can be bolstered with more substantial evidence or data. Can we introduce any wow factors here?
- Unique Value Proposition: Are we driving home our unique value proposition convincingly? How can we underscore this aspect more potently?

(Paste Pitch Here)

After analyzing the above content, offer specific suggestions for refinements, indicating the areas where the pitch shines and proposing how to elevate the parts that may be lacking.

Why This Works

Assigning ChatGPT the role of a leading pitch analyst coupled with detailed directives fosters a comprehensive review process, ensuring your pitch not only stands strong but resounds with a compelling and trustworthy narrative.

4. The Off-the-Wall Brainstorm

Haha. Mwa haha. Hahahaha! (just seemed like that’s what she’s saying)

When you’re tasked with coming up with creative and off-the-wall ideas for a project, event, or product, ChatGPT can be your pre-brainstorming partner, offering a wealth of imaginative suggestions.

The Prompt for ChatGPT

Hey ChatGPT, our team is brainstorming ideas for a new interactive tech experience. Assume the persona of a wacky, wildly-imaginative, visionary tech futurist and help us generate a list of ideas that are both forward-thinking and feasible. Consider the following aspects:

- Engagement: How will it captivate users?
- Innovation: What groundbreaking technology could we incorporate?
- Feasibility: How can we ensure the idea can be realistically executed with current technology?
- Wow Factor: What could give it that ‘wow’ factor, making it a must-experience?

Feel free to explore bold and unconventional avenues as we are open to off-the-wall ideas.

Why This Works

Enlisting ChatGPT to adopt a futurist’s lens empowers the brainstorming process with a mix of creative and technically grounded ideas, giving birth to concepts that are not only spectacular but also executable.

5. Fine-Tuning Your Company’s Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

Sharpen your company’s UVP by inviting ChatGPT to critically assess its strengths and potential areas for improvement from an expert’s viewpoint.

The Prompt for ChatGPT

Hello ChatGPT, I’d like you to assume the role of a seasoned business strategist. Our goal is to finely tune our company’s Unique Value Proposition (UVP). Here are the details about our product/service (include details). Please assess the following areas:

- Uniqueness: Are we effectively highlighting what sets us apart from the competition?
- Clarity: Are the benefits of our product/service clearly articulated?
- Alignment: Does our UVP align with the needs and desires of our target audience?

After assessing, please provide concrete suggestions for improving our UVP based on your analysis.

Why This Works

By positioning ChatGPT as a seasoned business strategist, it paves the way for a detailed and robust analysis, fostering the development of a UVP that is both distinct and aligned with your audience’s needs.

6. Competitive Analysis

Mike’s gaining on you, Steve. (this is the pic in Canva’s stock when you search ‘the competition’)

Conduct a thorough competitive analysis with the help of ChatGPT, assuming the role of a market analyst with deep insights into industry dynamics.

The Prompt for ChatGPT

ChatGPT, act as a market analyst with insights grounded in deep experience in the tech industry. We are looking to conduct a competitive analysis of the following companies in our sector:

- Company X (Brief Background)
- Company Y (Brief Background)
- Company Z (Brief Background)

Please analyze the following aspects:

- Market Position: How do they fare in the current market landscape?
- Strengths: What are their core strengths?
- Weaknesses: What could be their potential weak spots?

Your analysis will guide our strategic planning as we navigate the competitive landscape.

Why This Works

Instructing ChatGPT to embody a market analyst with industry experience ensures a meticulous competitive analysis, helping to craft a strategy that recognizes the strengths and weaknesses of key players in your sector.

7. Critical Review of Your Content Strategy

Pro Tip: Stop producing these.

Invite ChatGPT to perform a critical review of your existing content strategy, providing expert insights to polish it to perfection.

The Prompt for ChatGPT

ChatGPT, imagine yourself as a renowned expert in video content. I am sharing with you a draft outline of our live video content strategy (paste your strategy). Review it critically focusing on the following dimensions:

- Engagement: Are the proposed segments engaging enough to hold the viewers’ attention?
- Interactivity: Does the strategy allow for sufficient viewer interaction?
- Innovation: Are we utilizing any innovative approaches or missing out on trending features that could enhance the broadcast?

After reviewing, offer detailed feedback highlighting strengths and suggesting improvements to enhance the depth and appeal of our strategy.

Why This Works:

Assigning ChatGPT the role of a renowned expert in video content ensures that you receive critical and insightful feedback on your strategy, helping to elevate it to a professional standard by incorporating a rich blend of engagement, interactivity, and innovation.

8. Critiquing Your Partnership Proposal

Assign ChatGPT the role of a veteran in the big tech industry to critique your partnership proposal from a devil’s advocate standpoint before presenting it to potential collaborators.

The Prompt for ChatGPT

Hello ChatGPT, assume the role of an experienced professional in big tech partnerships. I want you to critically assess a partnership proposal I am working on. Here are the details (provide details). Focus on the following areas:
- Feasibility: Are there any over-promises or elements that don’t seem practical?
- Mutual Benefit: Does the proposal adequately address the benefits for both parties, or is it leaning too much towards one side?
- Innovation: Are there areas where the partnership could capitalize on cutting-edge technologies or trends more effectively?
Share your frank and critical perspectives to help me anticipate potential objections and improve the proposal.

Why This Works

ChatGPT, acting as a seasoned professional, can offer critical insights that might be overseen, ensuring the proposal is robust, mutually beneficial, and leveraging the latest trends effectively.

9. Evaluating Your Content Draft

“I just made a few light edits.”

Before publishing, leverage ChatGPT’s capacity to analyze your draft content critically, ensuring it is robust and well-rounded, ready to withstand scrutiny from diverse audiences.

The Prompt for ChatGPT

Hey ChatGPT, I’m working on a draft for my ‘Technormal’ blog and I would like a devil’s advocate to scrutinize it. Here is the draft (paste draft). Look at it from a critical lens and help identify:
- Ambiguities: Are there points that are not clearly articulated?
- Potential Controversies: Are there statements that might stir controversy or disagreement?
- Enhancement Opportunities: Can the content benefit from a deeper dive into specific areas?
- Resonance: Does the piece resonate well with a non-tech savvy audience?
I appreciate your sharp analytical insights to help shape a content piece that is both rich and well-rounded.

Why This Works

ChatGPT can assist in critically reviewing the content, identifying areas of potential controversy, and suggesting enhancements to resonate well with a broader audience, ensuring a content piece that is well-balanced and anticipates diverse viewpoints.

ChatGPT is more than just a tool; it is a collaborator ready to challenge you and enhance your viewpoints, always encouraging you to think bigger and dig deeper. It’s an invitation to engage with technology at a more profound level, fostering growth and exploration in both professional and personal realms. Harness the potential of ChatGPT to be your devil’s advocate, offering a fresh perspective and a helping hand in all your endeavors.

As always, my advice is:

Jump in. Tinker around by yourself. YOU CAN’T BREAK CHATGPT.

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Technormal

Simplifying generative AI and new technology for everyone.