Most people push-prompt. There's a better way.
At my day job, I work on a small team at a university library that hosts AI sessions for staff, helping them find ways to use AI tools in their everyday work. This was our second session in the series, focused on prompt engineering.
The session was entry-level, built around giving people a way to prompt that they could use the next day. Here's what we covered.
Push vs. Pull: Two Ways to Prompt
While researching for this session, I came across the terms "push" and "pull" prompting. Turns out I'd been doing both without realizing there were names for them. Once I saw the distinction, it made it a lot easier to explain to others.
Most people "push" prompt. They figure out exactly what they need, write it all out, and hand it over. That works for simple tasks.
But for anything complex or fuzzy, there's a better approach: pull prompting.
Instead of giving the AI turn-by-turn directions, you give it the destination and let it drive. The key sentence:
"Act as an expert [role]. I need [outcome]. Ask me all the questions you need to create this for me."
Two things happen at once: you give it an expert role and let it drive the information gathering instead of guessing what to include.
Then you just answer the questions. It asks about things you might not have thought to mention. It figures out what to ask, and you just answer. You still make the calls.
When to use which:
If you can describe exactly what you want in one sentence, push. If you'd need a whole paragraph to explain it, pull.
We also covered the 4-Part Prompt Formula
Every good prompt has four ingredients:
- Role: Tell the AI who to be. "Act as an experienced academic librarian" narrows the output. Without it, you get the average of everything.
- Context: Give it the background. The more relevant detail, the more relevant the response.
- Command: Be explicit. Not "write something about this." Say "write a 3-sentence reply declining this request politely and suggesting an alternative."
- Format: Tell it how you want the answer. Bullet points, a table, a short paragraph. If you don't specify format, it defaults to long, because long looks thorough.
The takeaway I left them with:
Pick one task you do every week that feels repetitive. A recurring email, a meeting summary, a document you always have to read and pull key points from. Try push first. Then try pull. See which one fits.
AI tools are first-draft machines. You are the editor. That doesn't change.