Current Level: 4/10
Final Level: 7/10
Competency: CC (low)
Final Level Metrics
- Can write a prompt that produces a consistent, reusable output without significant correction
- Prompts include explicit context, constraints, format, and success criteria
- Can identify why a prompt failed and revise it — not just rerun it
- Has a small library of prompt patterns that work reliably for recurring task types
What This Skill Is
Prompt Design is the practice of writing instructions an agent can follow reliably. It is not about clever phrasing — it is about anticipating what an agent needs to know to produce the intended output: context, scope, constraints, format, and what success looks like.
At CC (low), prompts are being written and sometimes work well. The gap is in consistency and diagnosis: prompts that fail are often rerun with minor tweaks rather than analysed for their structural weakness. There is no persistent library of tested patterns.
How to Develop This Skill
- After each significant prompt interaction, identify: what worked, what failed, what was ambiguous
- Build prompts in parts: context → task → constraints → format → success criteria
- When a prompt fails, write down the specific failure mode before revising
- Collect prompt patterns that consistently work into a reusable reference
- Treat prompt improvement as a Kolbs cycle: run → reflect → revise → re-run
Notes
Related Goal
Agentic Engineering
Related Kolbs Entries
(none yet)
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