6 Prompts to Solve Your Hardest Marketing Problems

Turn world-class principles into copy and paste prompts

Our post this week is a little shorter, but it's a good one.

It's a lightweight version of the tutorial I released yesterday for paid subscribers - "How to Create AI' subject-matter experts'."

The concept here is simple, it extracts core principles from subject matter experts and turns them into prompts.

I've been playing with these concepts for a long time. I did this silly app where you can steal famous people's prompts. Try Alexandar the Great, lots of fun.

I used this principle to create a library of prompts that can help me think through problems. These were some of my favourites.

1. Richard Feynman → Plain-Language Value Props "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

The principle: Sell it like you'd teach a bright 12-year-old.

Prompt: "Explain [your product] to a curious 12-year-old. Flag every sentence with jargon, acronyms, or buzzwords—then rewrite in everyday language until a tween would understand."

2. Jeff Bezos → Regret-Minimization for Channel Bets" In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves."

The principle: From 5 years in the future, which choice will you regret NOT testing?

Prompt: "Jump to 5 years from now as your company's CMO. Write a brief memo from your future self about [today's decision]. Which option left the least regret, and why?"

3. Roger Martin → Integrative Thinking "The best strategies integrate opposing ideas into superior solutions."

The principle: Hold two conflicting approaches, then create something better than both.

Prompt: "Name two clashing marketing approaches for [your goal]. List the biggest upside & downside for each. Now craft one synthesized approach that keeps the upsides and kills the downsides in ≤60 words."

4. Elon Musk → First-Principles Marketing "Boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there."

The principle: Strip marketing down to raw customer truths, then build fresh approaches.

Prompt: "Forget best practices for [marketing challenge]. List fundamental truths (buyer needs X, fears Y, budget is Z). From these basics alone, invent one novel tactic that satisfies these truths cheaper or faster."

5. Clayton Christensen → Jobs-to-Be-Done "Customers don't buy products; they hire them to do a job."

The principle: Find the real job customers pay you to perform.

Prompt: "Describe [your product] in one sentence. List the 3 biggest jobs (functional, emotional, social) customers hire it for. For each job, create: 1) a one-sentence value prop, 2) a campaign hook that speaks directly to that job."

6. Charlie Munger -> Inversion for campaign risk-proofing

The principle: Invert: list how the launch could flop, then design out each failure.

Prompt: Invert [campaign]: list three ways it could fail and add one concrete safeguard for each.

Until Next Time,

Kieran