Asking AI for feedback is useless. Try the "friction" prompt.
Stop asking the AI to be a “Senior Editor.” Ask it to be a distracted person in an elevator.
I used to use Claude like a cheerleader.
I’d type: “Here is my outline for this amazing new feature. Write a PRD for it?” And it would say: “Certainly! This looks fantastic. Here is your PRD...”
It’s fast and efficient. It also gives incredibly mediocre results.
In my view, the real power of AI isn’t in generating text, it’s in its ability to be the most annoying, skeptical, and impatient person you’ve ever met.
Here are the two prompts I use to stop shipping “polite” work.
What do you think of Understand Customers?
😡 ☹️ 😐 🙂 😍
1. The “Impatience” Test
Stop asking the AI to be a “Senior Editor.” Ask it to be a distracted person in an elevator. We think people hang on our every word. They don’t. They are looking for any excuse to close the tab.
The Prompt:
“Here’s [my post, announcement, and new feature]. Read it line-by-line. Every time you feel a ‘micro-friction’, a word that sounds like marketing fluff, a sentence that’s too long, or a step that feels like a chore, type [STOP] and tell me why you just closed the tab. Be impatient. Don’t be my mentor. Be a user who has 4 seconds before their meeting starts.”
2. The “Hidden Cost” Audit
We’re obsessed with “Value.” But users don’t just look at value; they look at cost. Not just money—mental energy, social capital, and time.
The Prompt:
“Here’s my pitch. Don’t tell me if it’s good. Tell me what I’m asking the user to give up to use this. List the hidden costs: Is it ‘mental calories’ to learn a new UI? Is it the ‘reputation risk’ of sharing a half-baked article? If the relief I’m offering doesn’t outweigh these costs, tell me exactly where I’m losing them.”
3. The Stakeholder Ultimatum
Instead of generic objections, ask the AI to play the “Internal Politics” game. This is how you pre-solve the arguments before your Monday morning meeting.
The Prompt:
“Here’s the plan. Give me the one-sentence ultimatum from each of these people that would actually kill this project:
Lead Engineer: ‘I’ll build this, but we have to stop all bug fixes for a month. Deal?’
CFO: ‘Which other project’s budget are we stealing to pay for this?’
CPO: ‘This helps 5% of power users but adds 20% more clutter for everyone else. Why is that worth it?’
Designer: ‘You’re using a tooltip to fix a navigation problem. How many more band-aids until the UI is unusable?’”
The “Kill Your Darlings” Rule
The best version of your work isn’t your original idea plus the AI’s suggestions. It’s your original idea minus everything the AI found annoying.
Try this: Take the draft you’re working on right now. Run the Impatience Test.
It’s a lot harder to hear “I stopped reading here because this is boring” than it is to hear “Nice work,” but it’s the only way to actually get through to people.
— Frank