Welcome to ChatGPT Masterclass AI Skills for Business Success.

This is Season 7, Episode 4 – Step-by-Step Workflows for Research and Analysis.

In the last episode, we covered role-based prompt chaining, using multiple expert perspectives to improve GPT’s responses. Now, we’ll focus on how to structure step-by-step workflows for research and analysis.

By the end of this episode, you will know:

• How to break down research tasks into structured steps.
• How to guide GPT through a logical research workflow.
• How to use multi-step prompts to generate in-depth insights.

Let’s get started.

Step 1: Why Research Needs Multi-Step Workflows

When you ask GPT to summarize a topic in one step, it often:

• Gives a surface-level response without depth.
• Misses key insights that could be discovered through structured analysis.
• Does not consider different perspectives that might be relevant.

Instead of asking:

"Summarize the latest trends in digital marketing."

Break it into multiple structured prompts:

1. "List the top five emerging trends in digital marketing."
2. "For each trend, provide a short description and real-world example."
3. "Analyze how each trend impacts small businesses."
4. "Suggest actionable steps to implement these trends in a marketing strategy."

By structuring the workflow, you get deeper, more strategic insights.

Step 2: How to Structure a Research Workflow with GPT

A good research workflow follows these steps:

1. Define the research goal – What are you trying to learn?
2. Gather raw data – Identify sources, trends, or industry insights.
3. Analyze and compare – Look for patterns, strengths, and weaknesses.
4. Summarize and refine – Generate final insights based on the analysis.
5. Turn research into actionable recommendations.

Let’s take an example: competitive analysis of an industry.

A poor prompt would be:

"Tell me about the competitors in the fitness app market."

A structured multi-step workflow:

1. "List the top five fitness apps currently dominating the market."
2. "Summarize the key features of each app."
3. "Compare their pricing models and business strategies."
4. "Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor."
5. "Suggest opportunities for a new fitness app to differentiate itself."

This method ensures GPT follows a structured research process instead of providing a generic summary.

Step 3: Using GPT to Compare and Analyze Data

GPT can analyze information step by step to extract insights.

For example, if you’re researching market trends, break it down like this:

1. "Identify five key trends shaping the e-commerce industry in 2025."
2. "Describe how each trend is changing customer behavior."
3. "Analyze which industries will benefit the most from these trends."
4. "Suggest how small businesses can adapt to these trends."

Or, if you need a SWOT analysis:

1. "List the strengths of Company X in the SaaS industry."
2. "Now list the weaknesses and areas of improvement."
3. "Identify the opportunities for growth in the market."
4. "List potential threats Company X should be aware of."

By taking a step-by-step approach, GPT delivers a more detailed and structured analysis.

Step 4: Researching Industry Reports with GPT

If you want GPT to summarize long industry reports, don’t just ask:

"Summarize this report."

Instead, use a progressive refinement method:

1. "Summarize the key findings of this industry report in five bullet points."
2. "Expand on each bullet point with more details."
3. "Extract the most relevant data points and statistics."
4. "Provide a conclusion explaining what these insights mean for businesses."

This ensures GPT captures the most relevant information while avoiding unnecessary details.

Step 5: Common Mistakes in Research Prompt Chaining and How to Fix Them

Mistake 1: Asking for a General Summary Without Structure

❌ Bad prompt:
"Summarize the e-commerce industry."

✅ Fixed prompt:

1. "Identify the top three growth areas in e-commerce."
2. "Describe how consumer behavior is shifting in online shopping."
3. "List the biggest challenges facing e-commerce businesses."

Breaking research into specific steps ensures more focused responses.

Mistake 2: Not Asking GPT to Compare Different Data Points

❌ Bad prompt:
"Tell me about Nike's business strategy."

✅ Fixed prompt:

1. "Describe Nike’s branding strategy."
2. "Compare it to Adidas’ branding strategy."
3. "Identify three key differences between Nike and Adidas."

Adding comparisons makes GPT’s insights more actionable.

Mistake 3: Not Refining Initial Research Results

❌ Bad prompt:
"What are the latest tech trends?"

✅ Fixed prompt:

1. "List five emerging technology trends."
2. "Summarize the business impact of each trend."
3. "Which industries will be most affected?"

By breaking down the research, you get clearer, more structured answers.

Example Prompts for Step-by-Step Research Workflows

First, for market research, try this.

"Identify the top three competitors in the health tech space. Now analyze their strengths and weaknesses. Now suggest ways a startup could differentiate itself."

Second, for financial analysis, try this.

"Summarize the financial performance of Company X over the last five years. Now compare it to its closest competitor."

Third, for trend analysis, try this.

"List five AI trends shaping the future of business. Now explain how these trends impact small businesses."

Fourth, for customer research, try this.

"Identify common pain points for online shoppers. Now suggest how a new e-commerce business can solve these issues."

Fifth, for product development, try this.

"List the most requested features in productivity apps. Now analyze how current apps meet these demands."

These multi-step research workflows improve depth, clarity, and strategic insight.

Now it is time for your action task.

Step one. Choose a research topic related to your business or industry.

Step two. Break the research into at least four structured prompts.

Step three. Use GPT to generate responses step by step.

Step four. Compare this method to a single-prompt approach and note the improvements.

Step five. Refine your workflow to improve accuracy and relevance.

By the end of this task, you will have a structured research framework that produces more insightful GPT responses.

What’s Next?

In the next episode, we will explore how to use prompt chaining for content creation and SEO. You’ll learn how to build workflows that generate structured, optimized content for blogs, social media, and marketing materials.

If you want to make GPT your content creation assistant, don’t miss the next episode. See you there!