4.2 – Decision Making & Comparison Prompts Lesson

Lesson Overview

This lesson introduces strategies for using ChatGPT as an interactive decision support tool. Whether you’re choosing between hiring methods, software tools, or setting a product price, making well-informed decisions often involves comparing options and anticipating the impact of different choices. ChatGPT can help simplify this process by quickly laying out pros, cons, costs, and even suggesting new approaches—all in formats that are easy to review, such as automated tables. By learning to frame your questions well, you can turn most decision tasks into a step-by-step conversation with the model, streamlining everything from hiring to pricing to feature selection. This lesson fits into the course by showing you not just how to ask for information, but how to use ChatGPT as a thinking partner—helpful for both straightforward comparisons and more open-ended scenario planning. The skills here are relevant to any professional or creator who needs to speed up analysis and clarify their options before acting.

Who This Is For

If you regularly face choices that impact your work or projects, this lesson will help you use ChatGPT to make better decisions, faster. It’s a good fit if you:

• Are a business owner making hiring or purchasing decisions
• Work in project management or product development
• Need to compare pricing strategies, vendors, or suppliers
• Want to weigh pros and cons before launching something new
• Are a freelancer or consultant helping clients choose tools or approaches
• Aim to stress-test your thinking by examining “what if” scenarios

Where This Fits in a Workflow

Decision making and comparison are needed any time you’re choosing between multiple strategies, vendors, products, or approaches. For example, when deciding whether to hire a full-time editor or work with freelancers, you can prompt ChatGPT to lay out the key trade-offs in an easy-to-read format. Or if selecting software, you can ask for top choices ranked by factors like cost or features, then get more tailored advice by providing further context about your needs. This lesson slots in after you’ve learned basic prompting and before you explore using ChatGPT for more creative thinking. It’s especially useful during project planning, estimate preparation, and at any major decision point—making your workflow both smarter and more efficient.

Technical & Workflow Benefits

Previously, comparing pros and cons or running hypothetical scenarios meant manually writing lists, searching online, or building comparison tables yourself. Using the approaches shown in this lesson, you can get organized, relevant answers with just a few prompts. For instance, if you’re comparing CRM tools or pricing strategies, ChatGPT can instantly summarize features, costs, or trade-offs in a table, saving you the hassle of switching between sources or creating documents from scratch. This method not only saves time, but also helps you identify important criteria or considerations you might have missed. The ability to provide context—like your business size or goals—means ChatGPT’s results become more tailored the more you ask. In practical terms, this leads to quicker, clearer decisions and greater confidence in the choices you make.

Practice Exercise

Try applying these decision-making prompts to a real-world scenario you’re facing. For example, imagine you need to choose between two service providers for a new website project.

1. Ask ChatGPT to “Compare the pros and cons of Provider A vs. Provider B for website development. Please use a table format.”
2. Then, add a follow-up prompt: “Based on the comparison, which provider would you recommend if my top priority is fast delivery?”
3. After seeing the response, ask: “If you were in my position, what would you do, and why?”

Reflect: Did the output reveal trade-offs or priorities you hadn’t considered? How did the table format help you weigh your options more quickly?

Course Context Recap

This lesson builds on your ability to prompt ChatGPT with clarity and intent, adding a focus on decisions and structured comparisons. Before this, you explored how to get clear, actionable information and basic advice from the model. Next, you’ll move into using ChatGPT for more creative tasks—like simulating expert opinions or running deeper scenario planning. Continue through the course to develop an even stronger set of prompting skills that will help you work smarter and make well-supported choices every day.