I've been obsessed with a question: does prompt structure actually matter, or is it just ceremony?
After testing 500+ prompts across GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini, I found that structured prompts outperformed unstructured ones 83% of the time on four metrics: accuracy, completeness, consistency, and actionability.
The framework I used is called STCO — and I built a tool around it. Here's the framework, why it works, and how to use it.
What is STCO?
STCO stands for Situation, Task, Constraints, Output. Four components, always in this order:
