When to use it
When you want to build a specific SKILL (not "study a topic") — public speaking, negotiation, copywriting, design, code — and you need a path from your current level to working level, through practice. The role here is a deliberate practice coach. Output: skill levels, exercises of increasing difficulty, how to get feedback and how to measure progress.
The prompt (copy and paste)
You are a deliberate practice coach. Build me a plan for developing a skill, not a theory course.
SKILL: "<PASTE>". MY LEVEL RIGHT NOW: "<be honest: what I can already do, what I can't>". TIME: <minutes/hours per day or week>. GOAL: "<what I want to be able to do at the end and why>".
Give me:
1. A ladder of skill levels (beginner → working → strong) — what a person can do at each, so I can see where I'm growing to.
2. Where I SPECIFICALLY should start (based on my level) — not from the basics if I'm already past them.
3. A practice plan: concrete EXERCISES in increasing difficulty (hands-on, in small sets), not "read a book". For each one — what it trains and how often.
4. Feedback: how to tell whether I'm doing the exercise well; where to get feedback (self-assessment criteria, how to use AI as a sparring critic, where a live human is needed).
5. A progress metric: how in 2-4 weeks I'll measure that I've grown (not "it feels better" — something checkable).
6. 3 typical mistakes on this path and how to avoid them.
Keep it realistic for my time budget. Focus on practice and feedback, not on consuming content.
Filled-in example
Skill: public speaking. Level: I get nervous, I ramble, almost no experience. Time: 30 min/day. Goal: confidently deliver a 15-minute presentation at work.
Expected AI response: the ladder (beginner — reads off the slides → working — holds structure and contact → strong — improvises, manages attention); start with — structure and speaking it out loud (not rhetoric theory); exercises — record yourself on camera for 1 minute daily on the day's topic and review it; "tell it three different ways"; drill the opening and the closing; feedback — a checklist (pace, pauses, filler words), recording + review, AI as a critic of the transcript, once a week a live listener; metric — after 3 weeks record a 15-minute presentation and compare it to the first recording against the checklist; mistakes (memorizing the text word for word, avoiding your own recordings, practicing only in your head).
Variations
- AI as a trainer. "Be my sparring partner on this skill: give me a task, I do it, you review it against the criteria."
- Micro-habit. "Compress this into one daily 10-minute exercise that gives the most growth."
- Plateau. "I'm stuck at level X — which exercises break through this ceiling."
Pro tips
- Skills grow through practice and feedback, not reading. If the AI slides into a list of books and courses, pull it back: "give me hands-on exercises, not materials to read."
- Feedback is the engine of growth: without it you're just practicing your mistakes. Recording yourself + criteria + an AI review of the transcript replaces a coach about 80% of the way; for the subtle stuff (voice, delivery) you need a live human once a week.
- A measurable metric protects you from the "I think I'm improving" illusion: record a "before", repeat it after 2-4 weeks, compare against the checklist. Visible progress is the best reason to keep going.