The Classify and Brainstorm Patterns

The Classify Pattern

Classify means sorting things into groups based on rules you set. Examples:

• Sort customer feedback by urgency (high, medium, low)
• Sort tasks by priority
• Sort emails by type (question, complaint, feedback, other)
• Sort product ideas by difficulty (easy, medium, hard)

The Classify Template

"Sort [items] into [categories]. Use these rules: [rule 1, rule 2, rule 3]."

Common Classify Tasks

By urgency: "Sort these customer complaints by urgency. High: data loss, billing errors. Medium: performance issues. Low: feature requests."

By topic: "Sort this feedback into categories: feature requests, bug reports, praise, and suggestions. Put each item in only one category."

By priority: "Sort these tasks by business priority: critical (affects revenue), important (affects customer satisfaction), nice-to-have (improves efficiency). Put each task in one category."

By difficulty: "Sort these marketing ideas by effort to implement: quick (1 day), medium (1 week), long-term (1 month+)."

The Brainstorm Pattern

Brainstorm means generating new ideas, options, or angles. AI is good at this but needs boundaries or it gives you too much.

The Brainstorm Template

"Give me [number] ideas for [what]. Each should be [constraint 1]. [Constraint 2]. Audience: [who]."

Common Brainstorm Tasks

Blog post ideas: "Give me 5 blog post ideas for small business owners. Each idea should be actionable. Include one sentence explaining why this topic matters."

Product features: "Give me 3 new features we could add to our app. Each feature should be something we can build in 2 weeks or less. Explain the benefit of each one."

Campaign angles: "Give me 4 different angles for our spring marketing campaign. Our target audience is women aged 25-40. Each angle should focus on a different pain point."

Meeting agenda ideas: "Give me 3 agenda items for our customer feedback session. Each should be a question we can answer in 30 minutes. The goal is to improve our onboarding process."

Why Constraints Matter in Brainstorm

Without constraints, AI gives you endless lists that are not useful. With constraints, you get ideas you can actually use.

WITHOUT CONSTRAINTS: "Give me ideas for a blog." (Result: 50 generic ideas that don't fit your needs)

WITH CONSTRAINTS: "Give me 4 blog ideas for our finance app. Each should take a reader less than 5 minutes to read. Target audience: freelancers who hate accounting. Make each idea specific (not 'how to save money' but 'three ways freelancers waste money without knowing it')." (Result: 4 solid, usable ideas)

Real Examples

Example 1: Classify Customer Feedback

Task: Organize feedback by theme so you can prioritize what to fix.

"Sort these customer reviews into categories: product quality, customer service, pricing, shipping, and other. Give me a count for each category. Tell me the top complaint in each category."

Example 2: Brainstorm with Strong Constraints

Task: Generate LinkedIn post ideas.

"Give me 3 LinkedIn post ideas for our startup. We want to attract software engineers. Each post should be between 3-5 sentences. The tone should be professional but friendly. Each post should end with a question that invites comments. Do not ask about job openings directly."

Example 3: Classify + Follow-Up Brainstorm

Task: Organize problems and then brainstorm solutions.

"Sort these customer complaints into categories. Then, for each category, give me 2 ideas for how we could solve this problem. Ideas should be realistic (not 'hire 100 new staff')."

Tips for Success

1. Use classify when you want to organize information
2. Use brainstorm when you want new ideas
3. Always give brainstorm constraints (number, length, tone, format)
4. Tell AI what rules to use for sorting in classify prompts
5. These two patterns work well together (classify problems, then brainstorm solutions)