By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:
Apply at least 10 of the 15 power-user workflows immediately
Match workflows to specific professional use cases
Develop a personal prompt template portfolio for highest-volume tasks
Use image generation or Vision workflows where available
Lesson Content
15 Power-User Workflows.
Communication Workflows:
Email chain intelligence: "Summarize this email chain: what decisions were made, what actions were committed to, and what is still unresolved?" – transforms email archaeology into a 30-second brief.
Meeting prep brief: "Based on this meeting agenda, what should I know, what questions should I have ready, and what positions might each stakeholder take?" – arrive prepared rather than surprised.
Difficult conversation planning: "Help me plan a difficult conversation with [role] about [situation]. What are the likely reactions, what should I say first, and what should I avoid?" – prepare without rehearsing with the actual person.
Communication adaptation: "Here is something I need to communicate. Adapt it for three audiences: my direct team, senior leadership, and an external client. – one source, three appropriately calibrated versions.
Analysis and Planning Workflows:
SWOT analysis: "Run a SWOT analysis for [project/idea/decision]. Be specific – actual strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, not generic phrases."
Risk register: "For this project [description], build a risk register with: risk description, likelihood (H/M/L), impact (H/M/L), and mitigation for each."
Decision matrix: "I am deciding between [options]. Build a weighted decision matrix. Ask me what criteria matter most and how to weight them, then score each option."
Competitive landscape: "Map the competitive landscape for [industry/market]: main players, their differentiation, and where opportunities may exist." (Verify with current sources – training data has a cutoff.)
Learning and Research Workflows:
Rapid field orientation: "I have a meeting in four hours about [topic I know little about]. Give me the essential background to participate intelligently – key terminology, major concepts, and the two things I most need to understand."
Research synthesis: "I have reviewed three sources [paste summaries]. Synthesize their key points, identify where they agree and disagree, and identify what major angle they collectively leave uncovered."
Structured brainstorming: "Give me 20 ideas for [challenge]. First pass: diverge widely without filtering. Second pass: identify the five most practical and five most creative." – structured creativity with divergent and convergent phases.
Document and Data Workflows:
After-action review: "We just completed [project/event]. Run an after-action review: what went well and why, what did not go as planned and why, and what should we specifically do differently next time?"
Process documentation: "I am going to describe a process I follow. [Describe it.] Convert this into a process document with: purpose, scope, step-by-step instructions, common exceptions, and a quick-reference checklist."
Data story prompt (data analysis / file analysis tools): "Here is my dataset [upload]. Tell me the three most interesting or important stories in this data – things I should pay attention to and might act on."
Visual Workflows (where applicable):
Visual concept generation (image generation): "Generate three concept images for [project/idea]. Each should take a distinctly different visual direction. I will describe which direction to develop further." – rapid concept exploration without design software.
Building your personal prompt template portfolio.
Identify your three highest-volume recurring tasks. For each:
Build a refined prompt template capturing your usual who, what, context, constraints, and format
Run it on a real example and refine based on the result
Store the refined prompt somewhere immediately accessible
Three well-crafted templates for your highest-volume tasks produce more cumulative time savings than occasional use of all 15 workflows.
Jamie Practice Lab
Before moving to the quiz, complete this short applied exercise:
Write one realistic ChatGPT prompt that applies the main idea from 15 Power-User Workflows for ChatGPT to your own work, learning, or daily life.
Add one safety or verification step you would take before acting on ChatGPT's response.
Revise the prompt once to include clearer context, constraints, or success criteria.
Instructor check: A strong answer should show practical use, human review, and awareness that ChatGPT output is assistance – not automatic truth or professional advice.
Added Quiz Enhancement
question_id: auto-enhancement-15-power-user-workflows-for-chatgpt-qjamie001 question_type: short_answer difficulty: applied question: Write one prompt you could use after this lesson, then name one verification or human-review step you would apply before relying on the result. correct_answer: Answers will vary; a strong answer includes a clear task, relevant context, at least one constraint or desired format, and a realistic verification or human-review step based on the stakes of the task. answer_explanation: This applied question checks whether the student can transfer the lesson into real use while maintaining responsible AI habits.
