Section 10.2.7 : CRISPE and COSTAR frameworks

🎯 Learning objective

Mastering the CRISPE and COSTAR frameworks to structure complex prompts in a methodical and reproducible way. Knowing when to use each and how to adapt them to your needs.

Why use a framework?

Prompting frameworks are ready-to-use structures that ensure you don't forget any key element. They're particularly useful in 3 situations:

→Complex tasks: a framework prevents forgetting an important element
→Team work: standardizing how the entire team interacts with AI
→Learning: when you're starting out, a framework serves as a "mental checklist"

Think of frameworks like cooking recipes: an experienced chef improvises, but a beginner cook follows the recipe — and produces an excellent dish.

The CRISPE framework — Expertise at the center

Capacity — Request — Insight — Style — Persona — Experiment

Letter	Component	Description	Key question
C	Capacity	The AI's role and expertise	"Which expert is speaking?"
R	Request	The specific task requested	"What should it produce?"
I	Insight	The context and key data	"With what information?"
S	Style	The desired tone and format	"How to present it?"
P	Persona	The target audience of the output	"Who will read/use it?"
E	Experiment	The request for variations	"How many versions?"

Complete CRISPE example — Content strategy:

[C — Capacity] You are a digital content strategy expert 
with 10 years of B2B tech experience. You've led content 
marketing for 3 scale-ups up to 1M visitors/month.

[R — Request] Create a monthly editorial calendar for our 
SaaS startup's blog. 12 pieces of content spread over 4 weeks.

[I — Insight] Our ICP is the HR Director of SMBs (50-500 employees) 
in France. We sell an all-in-one HR management tool. 
Our competitors: PayFit, Lucca, Factorial. 
Main SEO keywords: "HR software SMB", 
"HR digitalization", "cloud HRIS", "leave management".
Budget: 3 articles/week + 1 long-format piece/month.

[S — Style] Present as a table with: week, 
exact article title, angle (SEO/thought leadership/case study),
target keyword, estimated search volume, format 
(article/infographic/video/checklist), CTA (what content to suggest next).

[P — Persona] This calendar will be used by our junior content manager 
(1 year of experience). Be very precise and actionable — 
she should be able to brief a freelance writer directly 
with your output.

[E — Experiment] Propose 2 versions:
Version 1: pure SEO-oriented (maximum organic traffic)
Version 2: thought leadership-oriented (expert positioning)

CRISPE example — Technical audit:

[C] Senior DevOps expert, 12 years of experience, specialized 
in observability and SRE.

[R] Audit our monitoring stack and propose improvements.

[I] Current stack: Datadog (APM + logs), PagerDuty (alerting), 
Grafana (custom dashboards). 15 Kubernetes microservices, 
3 environments (dev/staging/prod). Monitoring budget: 
€2,500/month. Problem: too many non-actionable alerts 
(alert fatigue).

[S] Format: table of identified problems (severity, impact, 
solution), then improvement roadmap in 3 phases 
(quick wins / medium term / long term).

[P] For the CTO and lead SRE — needs technical detail 
but also an executive summary for the non-technical CTO.

[E] Propose 2 approaches: an all-Datadog one, and one with 
open source alternatives.

The COSTAR framework — Tone at the center

Context — Objective — Style — Tone — Audience — Response format

Letter	Component	Description	Key question
C	Context	Background information, situation	"What's the context?"
O	Objective	What you want to accomplish	"What's the objective?"
S	Style	The writing style	"How to write?"
T	Tone	The emotion conveyed	"What emotion?"
A	Audience	Who will read/use the result	"For whom?"
R	Response format	Precise response structure	"What format?"

Complete COSTAR example — Press release:

[C — Context] Our eco-responsible delivery company 
(cargo bikes in 5 French cities) just raised €2M 
in Series A from XYZ Ventures and ABC Capital. We 
delivered 500,000 packages in 2025 with an NPS of 72. We plan 
expansion to 15 cities by end of 2027.

[O — Objective] Write a press release announcing 
the fundraise, positioning our vision (zero-carbon urban 
logistics) and attracting attention from tech/startup media.

[S — Style] Professional journalistic, clear and informative.
Short sentences (< 20 words). No marketing superlatives.
Concrete facts and figures in every paragraph.

[T — Tone] Enthusiastic but measured. Inspiring without being arrogant.
Confident without being presumptuous. Ambitious but grounded in 
results already achieved.

[A — Audience] Tech/startup journalists (TechCrunch, 
industry publications), potential investors 
(Series B in 18 months), B2B prospects (e-commerce businesses 
looking for a sustainable delivery solution).

[R — Response format] Exact structure:
1. Catchy title (< 80 characters)
2. Informative subtitle (1 sentence)
3. Lead paragraph (2 sentences, summarizes the essentials)
4. Paragraph 1: The announcement (raise, amount, investors)
5. Paragraph 2: The context (2025 results, traction)
6. Paragraph 3: The vision (expansion, environmental impact)
7. CEO quote (3-4 sentences, inspiring)
8. Lead investor quote (2-3 sentences)
9. About (50-word boilerplate)
10. Press contact
Total: 400-500 words max.

COSTAR example — Client follow-up email:

[C] Prospect client (CIO of an SMB, 200 employees) who had a demo 
2 weeks ago but didn't follow up. He seemed interested 
in the workflow automation part.

[O] Follow up to offer a free 14-day trial 
without being commercially aggressive.

[S] Conversational but professional. No generic templates. 
Specific reference to the demo.

[T] Kind, helpful, zero pressure. Like a colleague 
offering help, not a salesperson pushing.

[A] A busy CIO receiving 100 emails/day. He scrolls 
quickly — the message must capture attention in 3 seconds.

[R] Subject (< 45 chars, personalized) + body (< 80 words) + 
1 clear CTA (link to free trial) + optional PS.

CRISPE vs COSTAR: the decision tree

CRISPE vs COSTAR — Selection guide

CRISPE when expertise matters, COSTAR when tone and audience matter
Aspect	CRISPE	COSTAR
Main strength	AI's expertise and role	Situational context and tone
Best for	Analysis, strategy, technical consulting	Communication, writing, marketing
Unique component	Experiment (request for variations)	Tone (emotion conveyed)
When to choose it	Specialized expertise is critical	Tone and audience are critical
Usage examples	Audit, editorial calendar, technical analysis	Press release, email, social post, pitch
Complexity	Moderate (6 steps)	Moderate (6 steps)

← Scroll horizontally →

In summary:

→Need an expert analysis or a technical deliverable? → CRISPE
→Need a text that reaches the right audience with the right tone? → COSTAR
→Not sure? → Use COSTAR — it's more versatile for most professional tasks

Hybridize frameworks — The CUSTOM framework

Nothing stops you from combining the best elements of both. In practice, here are the 5 essential elements, regardless of framework:

→Role/Expertise (who speaks)
→Clear task (what to produce)
→Context (with what data/constraints)
→Audience (for whom)
→Output format (how to structure)

If you include these 5 elements, your prompt will be excellent — with or without an acronym.

Practical exercise: CRISPE and COSTAR side by side

Duration: 20 minutes

→Choose a real professional task
→Write a prompt using CRISPE — note the response quality
→Rewrite the prompt using COSTAR — compare
→Create your own hybrid version keeping the best elements of both
→Which framework feels most natural? Adopt it as your "default framework"

Quick Check

What does the 'E' in the CRISPE framework stand for?

Quick Check

To write a client follow-up email with the right tone and pressure level, which framework is most suitable?

CRISPE and COSTAR frameworks