Prepare questions to get great stories from a subject-matter expert
An interview plan that pulls specific stories, numbers, and opinions out of an expert for an article.
The prompt
Help me prepare for an interview with a subject-matter expert (SME) that I will turn into content.
Expert and their role: [NAME/TITLE - e.g. "our head of engineering"]
Content piece I'm writing: [FORMAT AND TOPIC - e.g. "a blog post on reducing cloud costs"]
Audience: [WHO WILL READ IT and what they already know]
Angle or thesis (if I have one): [YOUR WORKING ANGLE]
Time available: [e.g. 30 minutes]
What I already know or have drafted: [NOTES]
Build:
1. A one-paragraph pre-read I can send the expert so they know what to expect (topic, time, how quotes will be used and approved).
2. 10-14 questions in order: warm-up, core story questions, "how exactly" process questions, contrarian or opinion questions, and proof questions (numbers, examples, before/after).
3. Follow-up probes for each core question ("Can you give me a specific time that happened?", "What would most people get wrong here?").
4. A must-get checklist: one memorable quote, one concrete example, one number or result, one mistake to avoid.
5. If time runs short: the 5 questions to keep.
Rules: open questions only, no yes/no. Avoid questions the expert would answer with generic advice. Flag anything that may need legal or PR approval before publishing.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Content & Social Media prompts
What to fill in
- NAME/TITLE - e.g. "our head of engineering"
- FORMAT AND TOPIC - e.g. "a blog post on reducing cloud costs"
- WHO WILL READ IT and what they already know
- YOUR WORKING ANGLE
- e.g. 30 minutes
- NOTES
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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