User interviews and prompt engineering use language to achieve clear outcomes. They may seem different, but they share key principles.
Similarities
Both practices require asking the right questions. The results depend on how well you communicate.
- Precision matters: Poorly worded questions lead to irrelevant answers, whether from a person or AI. Clarity and precision are essential for meaningful responses.
- Iterative process: Both need constant refinement. Tweaking a prompt or rephrasing a question helps improve insights.
- Understanding your audience: In interviews, it’s about empathy for the user. In prompt engineering, it’s knowing how AI interprets inputs. Both require a deep understanding of the respondent.
Differences
Success looks different for each practice.
- In user interviews, the goal is to uncover insights that guide product development. Success is about extracting the user’s true needs.
- In prompt engineering, the goal is to control AI behavior. Success comes from crafting prompts that trigger predictable, useful actions.
Challenges
User interviews face human complexity—bias, discomfort, and incomplete answers. Prompt engineering deals with technical challenges—a slight wording change can alter AI output dramatically.
Conclusion
Both user interviews and prompt engineering rely on language to guide responses. One seeks human insights, while the other aims for machine behavior. The key to both is knowing how to ask the right questions.