Prompt Engineering for Developers: Advanced Techniques 2025

The 5 Prompt Patterns I Use

You are a senior customer support specialist 
for a SaaS company.

Context: Customer is asking about refund policy.
Their subscription: Pro plan, 6 months active.

Task: Write a helpful, friendly response 
explaining our 30-day refund policy.

Extract key information from customer emails.

Example 1:
Email: "I need to upgrade to Pro by next Monday"
Output: {"intent": "upgrade", "urgency": "high", 
"deadline": "next Monday"}

Example 2:
Email: "Can you help me understand pricing?"
Output: {"intent": "pricing_info", "urgency": "low"}

Now extract from: [customer email]

Analyze this user feedback. Think step by step:

1. What is the main issue?
2. What sentiment is expressed?
3. What action should we take?
4. Provide final recommendation.

Feedback: [user feedback]

Generate JSON output only. No other text.

{
  "summary": "...",
  "category": "...",
  "priority": "high|medium|low",
  "suggested_action": "..."
}

Write a product description.

Constraints:
- Max 50 words
- Mention 3 key benefits
- Professional tone
- Include call-to-action
- Avoid technical jargon

Production Tips

• ✓ Version your prompts: Track changes like code
• ✓ Test with edge cases: Weird inputs reveal issues
• ✓ Set temperature wisely: 0.3 for consistency, 0.8 for creativity
• ✓ Use system messages: Set behavior, not in user prompts
• ✓ Monitor costs: Shorter prompts = lower API costs