079: I built my own GPT
Here's a step by step guide to a seminal moment
It took me maybe 20 minutes to build the Creative Brief Coach GPT last night. It’s now public for ChatGPT Plus users. (Access to the new world of custom GPTs, never mind the ability to create your own, makes the $20/month price tag worth it to me. You’ll obviously have your own rationale.)
Since most people I know aren’t shelling out for ChatGPT Plus yet, here’s the back story on what I built, and some thinking about why this capability reminds me of the early days of the iTunes App Store. In short: Bespoke GPTs (written by you, for you… or for people in situations like yours) are going to become very common. “There’s an app for that” will become “There’s a GPT for that.”
How to Build a GPT (It’s ridiculously easy, so of course I overthought everything)
You’re going to need an OpenAI Plus account (currently waitlisting due to demand).
Then you’ll head over to GPT Editor. It looks like this
And here’s the thing: Just Have A Conversation With It
One of the peculiarities I’ve seen with GPTs and humans is we engage with the GPT text entry field the same way we use Search. Makes sense given our long history with that kind of UX, but the purpose and outcomes are radically different.
So if there’s one piece of advice I can give for GPT use in general, it’s “Don’t use it like Search.” This isn’t a binary “Type/Get Results.” You’ll be disappointed if that’s your approach. Instead, convince yourself this is a conversation.
Earlier today I gave a coaching on creative briefs and the briefing practice, so that’s what I decided to build—a Creative Brief Coach (but watch how that name comes to life). Here’s my initial prompt…
Make a teacher who coaches marketing leaders how to write creative briefs using the following formula: 1) GET specific types of people in specific circumstances, 2) TO change specific behavior in a measurable way, 3) BY illuminating an actionable insight. The final brief should have just those three sections: GET, TO, BY.
I didn’t name it, GPT did! And it wants me to have an avatar. Fine, whatever. So we had a conversation about what that should look like…
Notice how the Editor and I are working on the left side of the browser while the prototype GPT gets assembled on the right side. And notice how it automatically assumes and asserts four preview questions above the text entry field predicated on my initial request.
Once we land on a visual icon, the real work begins as the Editor attempts to suss out my aspirations for this bespoke GPT.
And that’s it.
Four questions later, and the Editor told me my GPT was ready for testing. So I shifted to the right frame and typed in a request…
🤯
This is maybe 12 minutes into the effort. While this isn’t yet a serviceable brief, I have every confidence my partner—the Editor—has built a tool which will generate potent briefs. Time to return to the left side and fine tune some elements. Specifically, I want the Creative Brief Coach to work step-by-step through each of the three sections: GET/TO/BY. And I want the GPT to work conversationally with the user.
After the first response, I'd like the Creative Brief Coach to work step by step through GET, TO, then BY. In each of those three sections. ask the user questions to help them distill their answers. After the user responds, summarize their words and ask if the section is complete. If It is not complete, keep asking questions until the user says it is. Once a section is complete, save that work, then move on to the next section. Once all three sections are confirmed, write a recap summarizing the new creative brief with its three sections.
Then we gave the prototype another try…
Again, mind blown! Notice how I never specified current habits or perceptions but the Editor knows these are common elements related to understanding and clarifying a marketing audience; this is the LLM at work, trained on massive amounts of data. In essence, ChatGPTs training data could be every book, blog post or transcript ever conjured on marketing practices. So your partner in this endeavor is quite literally a librarian who’s read everything on your subject and can connect the dots you need connecting without you specifying which dots to connect.
So here are the three sections of our CPG client brief as summarized by the Creative Brief Coach (apologies for forgetting to screen grab all of the questions and my responses)…
And then, as we specified earlier, Creative Brief Coach wraps everything up with a concise summary (on the right side). Is it perfect? Of course not. Is it good enough to broker a useful conversation with a team? With a little editing, absolutely.
Where is this heading?
You can already see the plethora of GPT/app concepts coming online.
Bespoke GPTs will replace many types of instruction, numerous How To’s (I can see complimentary and competitive aspects to so much YouTube content), and any type of inquiry.
Understand or draft a legal document
Understand an Excel doc (i.e. campaign analytics anyone?)
Introduce people to a topic
Onboard employees
Explain company policy and test comprehension
Design literally anything—same goes for UX and game design
I bet I can build a GPT that writes music. 🤔
More GPT info
👍🏽
wrote a compelling case for GPTs—you should read his perspective. “The consumerization of AI powered chat-based experiences that actually work, thanks to advancements in LLM, will only move faster, both on the consumer front and the enterprise.”📚 Here’s a library of early stage GPTs to try out.
📣 The Verge summarizes the new world of GPTs well.
👏🏽 This TikToker wrote a GPT to analyze ad creative and offer feedback. Here’s his Ad Generator.