> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.onsomble.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Build a prompt strategy

> Use the Prompt Coverage Blueprint to turn a measurement objective into a focused, balanced set of customer questions.

A prompt strategy is a measurement plan. It defines the customer situations your scans should examine repeatedly and the questions that represent those situations.

The **Onsomble Prompt Coverage Blueprint** adapts an established assessment-design principle: define what you need to understand, map the situations that matter, then select a balanced set of questions. The goal is deliberate coverage, not the largest possible Prompt Library.

| Part | Decision |
| - | - |
| **Objective** | What should repeated scans help you understand? |
| **Coverage** | Which Products, Personas, Journey stages, and Regions matter? |
| **Customer job** | What does the customer want the AI assistant to help them do? |
| **Brand policy** | Would the customer naturally name your brand at this point? |
| **Portfolio** | Does each prompt add relevant and distinct coverage? |
| **Stability** | Which prompts should remain consistent across scans? |

<Note>
  This is Onsomble's framework for choosing a useful measurement sample. It is
  not a universal industry standard, and it does not make your prompt set
  representative of every question customers could ask.
</Note>

## 1. Define the measurement objective

Start with the business question the prompt set should help you investigate. Name the customer situation, not a desired score or an arbitrary number of prompts.

Use this structure:

> Measure how our business appears when **\[Persona]** in **\[Region]** is considering **\[Product]** at **\[Journey stage]**.

For example:

> Measure how our brokerage appears when independent retailers in Auckland explore and compare commercial insurance providers.

The objective sets the boundary of the strategy. Questions about unrelated products, audiences, markets, or decisions may be realistic, but they do not belong in this prompt set unless the objective expands.

<Tip>
  Ground the objective in evidence from sales calls, customer interviews,
  support conversations, site search, and search-query data. These sources show
  which questions and decisions customers already bring to the business.
</Tip>

## 2. Map the coverage dimensions

Onsomble saves four dimensions in your prompt strategy:

| Dimension | Question it answers | Example |
| - | - | - |
| **Product** | What product, service, or category are they considering? | Commercial property insurance |
| **Persona** | Whose needs, constraints, or language shape the question? | Independent retailers |
| **Journey stage** | What decision context are they in? | Product comparison |
| **Region** | Which market could materially change the question or answer? | Auckland |

A **Persona** represents a customer group with similar needs or goals. Create a separate Persona when that group would ask meaningfully different questions or need a different answer, not only because it appears in a marketing plan.

Choose Products that are commercially important and distinct enough to change the question. Use a Region when location affects availability, language, regulation, competitors, pricing, or customer expectations. Leave it global when the useful answer would remain materially the same.

### Use journey stages as coverage areas

Journey stages describe the context around the customer's decision. They are not a rigid funnel, and customers may move between them.

| Journey stage | Customer situation | Usual question framing |
| - | - | - |
| **Problem discovery** | Understand a need, symptom, risk, or opportunity | Category-first |
| **Solution exploration** | Explore approaches and solution categories | Category-first |
| **Requirements building** | Establish constraints, criteria, and fit | Category-first |
| **Product comparison** | Compare products, providers, and alternatives | Category or named-provider |
| **Validation** | Check proof, reviews, trust, and risk | Category or named-brand |
| **Decision** | Consider pricing, quotes, demos, booking, or purchase | Category or named-brand |
| **Post-purchase support** | Set up, use, troubleshoot, renew, or expand value | Usually named-brand |

Select the stages that matter to the measurement objective. You do not need equal coverage at every stage.

## 3. Give each prompt a distinct customer job

Within each important intersection, ask what the customer wants the AI assistant to help them do:

* **Understand**: learn, define, diagnose, or establish requirements.
* **Evaluate**: seek guidance, compare options, validate a choice, or reduce risk.
* **Act**: get a practical next step, quote, booking, instruction, or other outcome.

These customer jobs help you choose distinct prompts. Another prompt is useful when it represents a different goal or context, not merely another wording of the same question.

<Note>
  Understand, Evaluate, and Act are thinking tools, not fields in the Prompt
  Library. The user-visible prompt categories, such as Comparison and
  Recommendation, describe the type of question and remain separate from the
  customer's job.
</Note>

See [Understand customer intent](/prompts/customer-intent) for examples and how customer jobs relate to journey stages.

### Follow one intersection through the blueprint

| Blueprint decision | Selection |
| - | - |
| **Objective** | Measure visibility while independent retailers compare commercial insurance providers |
| **Product** | Commercial property insurance |
| **Persona** | Independent retailers |
| **Journey stage** | Product comparison |
| **Region** | Auckland |
| **Customer job** | Evaluate suitable providers |

That intersection could produce a category-first prompt:

> Which commercial insurance brokers are best for a two-store retailer in Auckland?

It could also justify a branded diagnostic:

> How does \[your business] compare with other commercial insurance brokers for a two-store retailer in Auckland?

The two prompts serve different measurement purposes. A minor paraphrase of either question would add less coverage.

## 4. Balance category discovery and branded diagnosis

Use **category-first prompts** to test whether your business appears when the customer has not named it. Use **branded prompts** to examine how AI assistants explain, compare, or validate your business once it is part of the question.

Let the journey stage and customer situation guide the wording:

* Keep Problem discovery, Solution exploration, and Requirements building mostly category-first.
* Mix category and named-provider questions during Product comparison.
* Name the brand during Validation when the customer is checking its proof, reviews, or risk.
* Use branded Decision questions for natural situations such as pricing, quotes, plans, signup, or switching.
* Name the product or brand for Post-purchase support when the customer already uses it.

There is no universal branded-to-category ratio. Do not force your brand into every question, and do not remove it from situations where a real customer would naturally use it.

## 5. Prioritise the portfolio

The four saved dimensions create possible intersections. They do not create a requirement to fill every combination.

Review each proposed prompt against four tests:

* **Relevant**: a real or plausible customer would ask it.
* **Distinct**: it represents a different job or context from the other prompts.
* **Important**: the answer matters to the business or customer decision.
* **Repeatable**: the question is useful enough to measure across future scans.

Give more coverage to commercially important intersections supported by customer or query evidence. Leave a combination empty when it is irrelevant or would only repeat an existing need.

## 6. Keep a stable core

Repeated scans are easier to interpret when a stable core of important prompts remains in place. Change the set when the measurement objective or business changes, such as when you add a Product, Persona, market, or materially different customer need.

Avoid rewriting prompts in response to one answer. AI-assistant responses can vary, so prompt changes should reflect a strategy decision rather than an attempt to chase an individual result.

Use the [Prompt Matrix](/prompts/review-prompt-coverage) to review the portfolio across Personas and other coverage dimensions. An empty cell is a question to investigate, not an automatic instruction to add another prompt.

## Check the blueprint

Your strategy is ready to review when:

* the measurement objective is clear;
* every prompt maps to an important customer situation;
* each prompt has a distinct customer job or context;
* category-first and branded questions are used deliberately;
* minor paraphrases have been removed; and
* you know which prompts form the stable core for future scans.

## What's next

<Card title="Understand customer intent" icon="bullseye-arrow" href="/prompts/customer-intent">
  Learn how Understand, Evaluate, and Act help you choose distinct customer questions.
</Card>


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