This ChatGPT Prompt Gives You a Life Plan. But Will You Follow It?
I built a prototype, gave it to five humans, and watched what broke. Turns out clarity isn’t the hard part.
What if, when you’re feeling stuck in your career, all you had to do was type a prompt into ChatGPT, have a short conversation, and walk away with a months-long roadmap to change your life? Sounds promising, right? That’s exactly what I set out to test back in April. I created a simple prototype and shared it with five brave testers. Spoiler: only three made it to the end. And if you’re curious to try the prompt yourself, just keep reading.
The Recap
I set out to create a prototype to test a business idea.
I had several ideas, interviewed a few people, and tried to define a clear problem space before building a solution.
From the problems I heard, the one that stood out, and that I found most interesting to prototype around, was the analysis paralysis that many interviewees described. Some expressed it as a lack of clarity about what to do or what steps to take. In one word: a missing roadmap.
The solution seemed obvious, at least to me. I’ve struggled with the same challenge. And ChatGPT has been surprisingly helpful in giving me structure: weekly plans, monthly goals, roadmaps. So I thought the prototype could be that simple. A prompt.
(Side note: I had grander ideas at first, everything from landing pages to conversational bots to training a language model. But thankfully, my background helps me catch those urges before I waste weeks chasing fancy solutions when, in reality, what we want is optimizing for quick learning.)
So, what did I learn? Let’s start with the feedback from the three generous volunteers who agreed to try the prompt and share their thoughts.
The Feedback
Key insights shared by three participants:
Helpfulness of the Roadmap: Participants rated the roadmap's helpfulness on a scale from 1 (Not helpful) to 5 (Extremely helpful). The average rating was 4.3, indicating a generally positive reception.
Ease of Completing the Prompt: When asked about the ease of completing the initial prompt, the average rating was 4. Seems like the process was relatively straightforward but suggested that it required some time invested to get the prompt ready.
Personalization: Regarding the roadmap's tailoring to individual situations, responses varied: two participant felt it was well-tailored, and another feeling it could be better. The top challenge shared was that the roadmap felt too far away for the current situation the tester is in.
Likelihood of Implementation: Participants rated their likelihood of implementing the roadmap on a scale from 1 (Not likely) to 5 (Very likely), with an average score of 4.0. While the intent to use the roadmap was strong, some expressed concerns about maintaining motivation over time or even more practical concerns about being possible to have a check-in scheduled or if Chat GTP would keep memory of the roadmap.
Reading through the feedback, the first level improvements were clear: reduce the initial friction to get started, offer gentle clarifications on how memory/scheduling works with ChatGPT, and find a way to ground the roadmap more closely in the user's current context, especially when the output feels too ambitious or vague.
But here’s another layer of learning: I didn’t start with just three testers. I had five. One later told me they didn’t feel the problem was relevant right now. Another never found the time to sit down and do the exercise. What does this tell me? This is also a data point. If people don’t feel the need strongly enough or can’t prioritize even a short prompt, that says something too.
So, will I keep going with this idea? Maybe. Maybe not. My goal was to go through the full cycle of building and testing a prototype, and I did. Is AI the perfect co-pilot to help people create career roadmaps? Based on early signs, it has potential. But is it the idea I’m burning to build for the next few years? Right now, it’s not a hell yes. So... on to other learnings, and maybe, more prototypes.
Bonus: The Roadmap Prompt
If you're curious and want to try the prompt yourself, here's exactly what I shared with the five volunteers (to whom I am deeply grateful that said yes to embark on this journey!).
