Prompting
Iterate and feed it context
Sometimes Claude gives you an answer that you aren't quite satisfied with, even after prompting well. Most people read the first answer, decide it is not quite right, and give up. But Claude is a conversation, not a vending machine. Think of the first response as a working draft. With a little guidance, Claude can usually get much closer to exactly what you need.
You do not need careful prompts to fix a draft. You need clear corrections, each one building on what came before.
Say you start with a quick, rough ask. The first draft comes back rough too, and that is fine, because the next message is where the work happens.
Write a client email letting them know the Seer Medical Devices May financials are ready.
Dear Dr. Seer,
This is to confirm that the May financials for Seer Medical Devices are ready. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions.
Sincerely,
your team
Make the tone friendlier, drop the formal sign-off, and mention the financials are in their client portal.
Hi Dr. Seer,
I hope you and your family are doing well. The May financials for Seer Medical Devices are ready for you to review. They are in your client portal, but please reach out if you need my help with anything.
Thank you. Now add that we will need the loan documents for their new building purchase in June.
Hi Dr. Seer,
I hope you and your family are doing well. The May financials for Seer Medical Devices are ready for you to review. We will need the loan documents for the new building you will be purchasing in June, so please upload them to the client portal when you have them. Please reach out if you need my help with anything.
Each correction built on the last. You were refining, not restarting.
When the work depends on a document, give Claude the document. Paste the prior email, the trial balance, the notice, the memo. Do not describe it from memory and hope Claude fills the gaps, because it will fill them with guesses. Our Team plan allows us to use Claude with client data, so give Claude what it needs to be accurate instead of making it improvise.
One caution. If you are five corrections deep and it is still wrong, the best solution is to try again. Start a new chat with a cleaner prompt using the five parts. A good restart beats ten rounds of patching a bad start.
Asking well gets you a strong first draft. Iterating gets you the finished thing. Most of the distance between "this is fine" and "this is what I wanted" is two or three follow-up messages you were not sending.