ChatGPT Prompts for Management Consultants: 10 Prompts

ChatGPT prompts for management consultants work best on the structuring jobs that eat the first week of an engagement: framing the problem, building an issue tree, drafting interview guides, and writing the data request. Give ChatGPT the client question and the facts you already have, keep the client anonymous, and ask it to label every claim as a hypothesis. The 10 prompts below follow a typical engagement from kickoff to steering committee.

Never paste confidential client data; use a code name and only facts your firm allows.

Frame the problem

1. Problem statement builder

Client [code name] in [industry] asked: [client question]. Facts so far: [facts with sources]. Write a situation, complication, and key question in three sentences using only these facts.

2. Issue tree draft

Break this key question into 3 to 4 branches that do not overlap and together cover the problem, with 2 to 3 sub-questions each: [key question]. Then tell me which branch looks weakest and why.

3. Hypothesis to analysis map

Our team hypotheses are: [hypotheses]. For each one, name the analysis that would prove or kill it and the exact data it needs. Mark anything we cannot test with the data we have.

Gather evidence

4. Stakeholder interview guide

Write five open questions for a [role] at [code name], tied to these issue tree branches: [branches]. Add one question designed to disprove our favorite hypothesis: [hypothesis].

5. Data request list

The client can share [data available]. Our analyses need [analyses]. Write a numbered data request the client team can act on, and mark anything they have not offered as a new ask.

6. Interview synthesis

Here are my notes from [number] interviews: [notes]. Group what people said by issue tree branch, note where interviewees disagree, and list quotes I should verify before using them.

Build the storyline

7. Action title writer

Turn these findings into slide action titles that state the so-what in one sentence each: [findings]. Keep any finding without data labeled as a hypothesis.

8. Storyline skeleton

We owe a [length] deck to the steering committee on [question]. Draft 6 to 8 slide headlines that tell the story in order, and show which data each slide still needs.

9. So-what challenger

Play a skeptical client executive. Read this storyline: [headlines]. Ask the five hardest questions you would ask in the meeting, and tell me which slide is weakest.

Close the loop

10. Steering committee follow-up

Here are my notes from today's steering committee: [notes]. Write a short follow-up email with decisions made, open questions, owners, and dates. Do not add anything that was not in the notes.

Structure the first week with one prompt

The flagship Management Consultant Prompt: Issue Tree to Interview Guide runs the first week in one pass: problem statement, issue tree, hypothesis tests, interview guides, a data request, and a storyline skeleton. Its example diagnoses a margin drop at a 14-cafe bakery chain using only facts from the kickoff.

A note on confidentiality: use client code names, and only put client data into AI tools your firm has approved. Never let ChatGPT supply market sizes or benchmarks; source those yourself.

Related prompts

For options work after the diagnostic, try the business strategy options memo or the SWOT analysis generator. ChatGPT prompts for business strategy covers the planning side, and ChatGPT prompts for meeting minutes helps with client meeting notes.

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