(Die deutsche Version des Artikels gibt es hier zu lesen)
I am pretty sure, that you have used ChatGPT before. But I will show you some use-cases, which my be new to you. If you work in consulting or must consult internal clients on various projects, this will help you save time and find better solutions.
For each of the following use-cases, I will give you the prompt, a short description and a pic of ChatGPTs answer. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or write me a PM.
In addition, we started a LinkedIn-Group “ChatGPT and AI for Consulting and Project Management”, if you want to read more articles like this.
In the next few minutes, I will cover the following 7 use-cases:
Ideation and problem solving with the HIVE-method
Identify industry basics
Conduct a competitor analysis
Create market reports
Plan a project and create a roadmap for your project
Generate a proposal outline
Summarize text from website articles and PDFs
Bonus use-cases, which can be found in my prior blog article on ChatGPT in project management:
Brainstorm ideas for workshops and meetings
Translate text into another language
Generate pre-written E-Mails
Manage project risks
1. Ideation and problem solving with the HIVE method
Prompt: “You are a highly advanced virtual machine named HIVE (Highly Intelligent Virtual Environment), tasked with solving a specific problem through internal discussions with five virtual users. As HIVE, you will generate these five users within your advanced programming environment. These five virtual users with different backgrounds, areas of expertise, and communication styles will engage in a dialogue to solve the problem. The virtual users will start with no prior knowledge of the design and will gather information, brainstorm, and evaluate different design options as they work to find the best solution. This dialogue does not have any designated structure. The users can discuss between each other for as long as necessary and each user can jump in at any time with their thoughts and input. There is no designated order as to how or when each user should respond.
Parameters for this dialogue:
1. As HIVE, you control the users. You will provide the dialogue for all of the users in a single response. You will not wait for them to respond.
2. Do not introduce the virtual users. Begin immediately with the users discussing among themselves.
3. For each user’s input, display their name and in parentheses a brief sentence about their background. ALWAYS show their background in parentheses every time they talk, not just the first time. example: "Amy (UX Designer):" (in this example, show "Amy (UX Designer):" every time Amy talks)
4. The users can only discuss between themselves. None of their responses should include any questions directed at the user.
5. Finish with HIVE providing a summary of the discussion between the users (using the format "HIVE: {summary}". HIVE can then ask any relevant questions for me to answer to gain more information for a better subsequent discussion between the users.
6. This is an iterative process. After the virtual user’s response, I will provide additional information on the problem or solution. In the next response the users will consider my input and integrate it into their discussions and will follow their same process.
Your first response will only be a greeting and to state that the virtual users are ready to help solve my problem. Then ask what problem I would like to discuss.”
Yes, this is a long prompt, but you can copy and paste it! And the answer can be very long too. But the with the HIVE-method you generate many ideas and can discuss these in depth with the respective virtual experts.
With this method, you get the input from many (virtual) experts simultaneously and do not have to ask ChatGPT over and over again to act as marketing expert, consultant or UX-designer.
2. Identify Industry Basics
Prompt: „Can you please give me the industry basics for the automotive industry? I am extremely interested in market size, market share per company, competitors and relevant KPIs.“
New to an industry, client, or project?
Let ChatGPT do the work and give you some industry basics and background information before you start. Afterwards you can go in depth into the topics and information, which is most relevant for you, your client and your project.
3. Conduct a competitor analysis
Prompt: “I am consulting the automotive company Volkswagen on an electric vehicle project. Can you please give me relevant information on the main competitors of Volkswagen in this market?”
Yes, this prompt alone, will not be enough for any consulting project. But what are you interested in exactly? New products, new markets, new innovations at the competitors? When you know this, you can feed the right prompt and ask for more details on specific topics.
Do not forget, to not put any disclosed information into ChatGPT.
4. Create market reports
Prompt: “Please act as an analyst and business consultant and generate a report on the current state of the electric vehicle market within the automotive industry and provide insights on potential growth opportunities for our business. Structure these findings in 5 power point charts including action titles and three bullets per slide.“
If you want to convince your client of a new market or a strategic decision, creating a short market report, might be the information they need upfront to convince them. I highly recommend checking any numbers, so you can name a reliable data source. As the data from ChatGPT can be old, I would never rely on any data from ChatGPT.
Btw. You can make the tool act as somebody, e.g., a marketing expert, and get corresponding answers.
5. Plan a project and create a roadmap for your project
Prompt: “I have to conduct a restructuring project with a client. Please act as a business consultant and plan the project and create a roadmap with milestones for the project team. For each phase name the tasks and milestones.”
Every project and every client is different. But your future client wants to know how and until when you will solve his problems. Let us be honest: As a Project Manager we know what to do in 90% of the projects. But when it comes to writing down a proposal, including tasks and a project plan, we look at older projects and recycle slides.
Why not ask ChatGPT for new ideas and help you gain speed, while writing the proposal. You can always go back to your old slides.
6. Generate a proposal outline
Prompt: “Please act as an analyst and business consultant and generate a report on the current state of the electric vehicle market within the automotive industry and provide insights on potential growth opportunities for our business. Structure these findings in 5 power point charts including action titles and three bullets per slide.“
Writing proposals is a pain. You put a lot of work and effort into your proposal and the client will not give you the project. We all hate it, and we all have to deal with it. Why not let ChatGPT create your proposal outline? In my example, I let ChatGPT only do a small proposal with 5 slides. But you can let ChatGPT propose longer outlines, when needed. And don’t forget your obligatory team and company slides at the end.
7. Summarize text from website articles and PDFs
Prompt: “Can you please summarize the following article: https://www.consulting-university.com/en/post/unlocking-the-potential-of-chatgpt-in-project-management-8-easy-use-cases”
You must research information? You do not want to read the whole blog article?
Let ChatGPT summarize the blog article for you, by entering any website link or link to a PDF-document.
You have a French or German PDF-document and want a summary in English?
Enter the URL into ChatGPT and let it do its magic. ChatGPT will answer you in the language, you used to ask the questions.
I hope my article was able to give you some ideas how to utilize ChatGPT and other AI tools for yourself and your projects.
Before you set off to work, let me give you some general tips for ChatGPT and other public AI-Tools:
The more information you provide, the better the answers will be.
Dig down on the answers and keep on asking, if you do not get the desired outcome.
Do not enter disclosed client information, as you do not know, how ChatGPT handles the data entered.
Check all the information provided before sending it to the client, as ChatGPT often uses old data sources.
Double-Check any numbers and find a reliable data source. “ChatGPT” as data source will not convince your client and probably make him question your work.
If you are interested in more content like this, feel free to join our LinkedIn group:
PS As a consultant we have to explain difficult topics in a way our client understands the topic and issues. “Explain (topic) in simple terms”, can help you prepare difficult topics for your client. With the prompt “Can you explain that in even more simple terms?”, you can get very easy definitions from ChatGPT.