2026-07-12 GETSTARTED☾ PM
Well, Actually: Your AI Brainstorming Prompts Are Probably Terrible
📰 THE BRIEF
Forbes published guidance on using AI for brainstorming that moves past the obvious. The piece emphasizes writing specific prompts and iteratively refining outputs rather than accepting first-pass suggestions. Generic queries yield generic results. Shocking, I know.
💡 WHY IT MATTERS
This teaches you to treat AI as a dialectical partner, not an oracle. You must constrain the problem space tightly and then critique the response. Your workflow changes from one-shot questioning to iterative refinement loops. This mirrors actual creative methodology, which undergraduates in my seminar would know if they read the assigned texts.
👥 WHO'S DOING IT
Forbes technology contributors assembled these recommendations. The source does not attribute specific results or named practitioners.
⚡ TRY IT
- Open any consumer AI chatbot and type a deliberately vague brainstorming prompt on any topic you face, then note how generic the response is.
- Rewrite the prompt with three specific constraints (budget, timeline, audience) and request five unconventional angles explicitly excluded from typical suggestions.
- Pick the weakest of those five and instruct the AI to improve it by adding a specific obstacle or stakeholder objection you name, observing how the idea sharpens under pressure.