When you first set up a project in Gumshoe, it automatically builds prompts based on the personas and topics your project is built around. One common question we hear is: "What prompts should I use?"
The short answer is: you don't need to worry too much about them as long as the foundations of your project are accurate.
Take time setting your project's product category
Prompts are designed to reflect the kinds of questions your customers or prospects might ask in AI tools. But the real key to a good project is the product category you choose at the start. The product category defines the area or category of your business or market you want visibility into. Once that's clear, Gumshoe automatically builds out the right prompts to explore that product category in depth. For instance, if you work at Nike, you might want to start a project focused on running shoes, as they represent a distinct category of your business.
Why do personas matter most?
Each project includes a set of personas, the audience types most relevant to your market. Gumshoe provides starter personas for every project. We recommend:
- Keep them as-is unless you strongly disagree.
- Add more personas if there are additional roles or audience types you want covered.
- Remove personas only if they are completely irrelevant to your goals.
- Take the time to read and edit all personas in your project.
By adjusting personas, you're ensuring that Gumshoe generates prompts and analysis that reflect the voices of the people you care most about.
How much tweaking is really required?
Once your product category and personas are set, the rest of your project (including prompts) will generate automatically. Gumshoe is designed so that you don't have to spend time writing or perfecting individual prompts. With minimal adjustments, you'll get a full picture of how AI models are presenting your brand and how to improve your visibility.
Can I change prompts and topics later?
Yes, both stay editable after your project exists, so nothing you set at the start is permanent.
The two behave differently once you edit them. Topics are labels that organize your audit and are never sent to the AI models, so a topic change takes effect right away. Prompts are the questions actually put to the models, so a prompt change is picked up at your next scheduled run rather than immediately.
What's the bottom line?
Don't worry about writing the "perfect" prompts. Just choose the right product category, make sure the personas fit your goals, and Gumshoe will handle the rest.
What should I do next?
Let your first audit run before you touch anything. That run shows you how the models already see your brand, which is the baseline everything else is measured against, and it is far easier to judge your prompts once you have seen the answers they produced.
After that run, read your prompts against the results. The ones worth adding are the questions you know your buyers actually ask, especially the ones that come up in sales conversations. For the steps, see How can I view, edit, and use prompts to understand my AI search standings?