Prompting and task execution
Exam domain 1: Prompting and Task Execution (14%)
A good prompt reads like a clear brief to a smart new colleague: who it is for, what you need, what good looks like, and what to work from. Domain 1 tests four skills: writing effective prompts, decomposing complex tasks, iterating, and adapting your approach to the task type.
The anatomy of a strong prompt
Figure 2. The eight parts of a strong prompt. You rarely need all eight; missing context and audience cause most weak outputs
Element Question it answers Example
Task What exactly should Claude
do?
"Draft a customer email announcing the price change."
Context What background does
Claude need?
"We are a B2B SaaS firm. Prices rise 8% on 1 March. Existing customers keep old pricing until renewal."
Task
What exactly should Claude do?
Context
What background does Claude need?
most often missing
Audience
Who will read the output?
Audience Who will read the output? "Small-business owners, non-technical, some already unhappy about a recent outage."
- Constraints Limits on length, tone,
- scope
- "Under 150 words. Warm but direct. No discount offers."
Format Shape of the output "Subject line, then three short paragraphs."
- Examples What good looks like Paste a past email you liked
- Source ma‐
- terial
What to base the answer on Attach the pricing memo; tell Claude to use only it Success cri‐
teria
How you will judge it "A customer should understand when the change affects them." You rarely need all eight. Missing context and missing audience cause most weak outputs.
Techniques the exam expects you to know
Be specific and explicit. "Summarize this" is weak. "Summarize this 20-page report in five bullets for a CFO, focusing on cost risks" is strong.
Give a role when it helps. "You are an experienced HR business partner" sets vocabulary and judgment.
Separate instructions from material. Put pasted documents under clear labels or tags, such as <contract>...</contract>, so Claude does not confuse your instructions with the text. Show examples (few-shot prompting). Two or three examples of the format or tone you want beat a paragraph of description.
Ask for reasoning on hard problems. "Think through the options step by step before recommending one" improves analysis and makes it checkable. Ground answers in sources. "Answer only from the attached policy. If it is not covered, say so." This is a key defense against hallucination.
Allow uncertainty. Invite Claude to say "I don't know" or flag assumptions rather than guess. Say what to do, not only what to avoid. "Write in plain English at a Grade 8 level" works better than "Don't be too technical."
Task decomposition
Complex requests produce better results when broken into steps. Instead of "Write our Q3 marketing plan," work in stages: Ask Claude to list the questions a strong plan must answer, and fill in your answers. Have it analyze last quarter's results (attached) and name three lessons.
Ask for three strategic options with pros and cons. You pick one.
Have it draft the plan for the chosen option, section by section.
Ask it to critique the draft as a skeptical CMO would, then revise.
Each step gives you a checkpoint to correct course. This is called prompt chaining: the output of one step becomes the input to the next.
Iterative refinement
Treat the first output as a draft. Give targeted feedback ("The second paragraph is too salesy; cut adjectives and add the date") rather than starting over or saying "make it better." If you have corrected the same issue twice, fix the prompt itself, or move the rule into your Project instructions.
Matching the strategy to the task type
Task type Strategy
Analysis Supply the data, state the question, ask for reasoning and explicit assumptions, request a structured result
Research Use Research mode or web search, ask for citations, specify date range and source quality, verify key claims
Drafting Give audience, purpose, tone, length and an example; iterate on specifics Brainstorm‐
ing
Ask for many diverse options, encourage unusual ideas, then narrow with criteria in a later turn Summarizing State the reader and purpose, set a length, ask it to keep figures and decisions, and to flag anything uncertain
Extraction Specify exact fields and output format, such as a table; say what to do with missing values
Prompt patterns worth memorizing
These reusable shapes cover most business tasks. Learn the pattern, not the exact words.
Pattern Shape Best for
Brief Task + context + audience + constraints + format Any drafting task Grounded an‐
swer
"Using only the attached X, answer Y. If X does not cover it, say so. Quote the supporting passage."
Policy, contract and research
questions
Interview me "Before you start, ask me up to five questions you need answered to do this well."
Critic "Review this draft as a skeptical [role]. List the ten weakest points, most serious first."
Improving drafts before review
Template fill "Use exactly this structure: [headings]. Keep each section under N words."
Recurring reports
Extract to table "Extract these fields into a table: A, B, C. Use 'Not stated' for missing values."
- Turning documents into data
- Rewrite for audi‐
- ence
"Rewrite this for [reader] who needs to [decision]. Keep all figures. Remove jargon."
Repurposing content
Prompting and task execution
Using examples well
Examples are the most powerful steering tool you have, and the easiest to misuse. Show variety. Two or three examples that differ in topic but share the format teach the pattern. Three nearly identical examples teach Claude to copy them. Label them. Put each example under a clear label, such as <example>, so Claude knows it is a model and not content to reuse.
Match the quality you want. If your example is mediocre, the output will be too. Say what to copy. "Match the tone and structure of the example, not its content."
Structuring long prompts
For prompts with a lot of material, use a predictable layout:
Role and goal in one or two sentences.
Background and context.
Source material, each piece clearly labeled or tagged.
The specific task and steps.
Output format and length.
What to do if information is missing or ambiguous.
Putting the task after long source material helps Claude focus on it. Repeating a crucial constraint at the end ("Remember: under 200 words") is a reasonable safeguard.
Worked examples
Worked example 3.1: From vague to strong
Before.
Write an email about the office move.
Result. A generic, cheerful email with invented dates and a placeholder address. After.
Draft an internal email from the Facilities Manager to all 85 staff at our Leeds office. Context: we move from 12 King Street to 4 Wellington Place on Monday 16 March. The last working day at King Street is Thursday 12 March. Friday 13 March is a work-from-home day while IT moves equipment. Staff must pack their desks by 5 pm on Thursday; crates arrive Tuesday 10 March. Audience: busy staff who skim. Some are anxious about the longer commute. Format: subject line; a two-sentence summary; a short bulleted timeline; one line acknowledging the commute concern and pointing to the travel FAQ; contact details for questions. Tone: friendly, clear, no exclamation marks. Under 200 words.
Result. An accurate, skimmable email that needs one small edit.
What changed. Facts replaced Claude's guesses, the audience shaped tone, and the format matched how staff read email.
Worked example 3.2: The "interview me" pattern
Situation. Aisha, a new project manager, must write a project charter but is unsure what it needs.
Prompt.
I need to write a project charter for migrating our customer database to a new CRM. Before drafting, ask me the questions you need answered to write a strong charter. Ask them in one numbered list, at most eight questions.
Claude asks about objectives, scope, out-of-scope items, stakeholders, budget, timeline, risks and success measures. Aisha answers in a few lines each, and the resulting draft reflects her real project rather than a generic template.
Lesson. When you do not know what context matters, let Claude tell you.
Worked example 3.3: Decomposing a quarterly business review
Situation. Daniel must produce a quarterly business review (QBR) deck for a major client from a sales export, support ticket data and account notes.
Step Prompt summary Daniel's checkpoint
1 "From the attached sales export, calculate quarterly revenue, growth and top five products. Use code."
Spot-checks totals against the
Crm
2 "From the support data, summarize ticket volume, top three issue types and resolution time trend."
Confirms the issue categories
make sense
3 "From my account notes, list wins, risks and open commitments." Removes one confidential internal comment
4 "Propose a ten-slide QBR outline using steps 1 to 3. One message per slide."
Reorders two slides
Prompting and task execution
Step Prompt summary Daniel's checkpoint
5 "Draft speaker notes and slide text for each slide; create the deck." Final edit and fact-check Lesson. Each step is small enough to check. Errors are caught early rather than buried in a finished deck.
Worked example 3.4: Iterating with targeted feedback
Round 1 output is a product description that is accurate but dull.
Weak feedback Strong feedback
"Make it better." "Open with the customer problem, not the product name."
"More exciting." "Replace the three adjectives in paragraph one with one concrete benefit and a number." "Shorter." "Cut to 80 words. Keep the warranty sentence."
By round 3 the description is ready. Daniel then adds "open with the customer problem; one concrete benefit with a number; 80 words" to his Project instructions so future descriptions start there.
Worked example 3.5: Getting reasoning you can check
Situation. A procurement officer asks whether to renew a software contract.
Prompt.
Using the attached usage report and contract, decide whether we should renew, renegotiate or cancel. Work step by step: (1) summarize usage trends, (2) compare cost per active user to the contract price, (3) note contract terms that affect the decision, such as notice periods. Then give a recommendation and list the assumptions it depends on.
Why it works. The officer can check each step. If step 2 uses the wrong user count, she can see it and correct it, instead of being handed an unexplained verdict.
Scenario walkthroughs
Scenario A. A communications officer asks Claude to "summarize this report" and gets a tenparagraph summary when she needed three bullets for her director. Analysis. The prompt lacked audience, purpose and length. Fix: "Summarize in three bullets for our director, who needs to decide whether to fund phase two. Keep the cost figures." Scenario B. A teacher wants 20 quiz questions at different difficulty levels for a unit on photosynthesis. Analysis. State the level of the learners, the number per difficulty level, the question type and the answer format. Include one example question at each level. Ask Claude to mark the correct answer and give a one-line explanation, then check every question for accuracy. Scenario C. An analyst pastes a long contract and asks a question, but Claude answers using instructions it seems to have taken from the contract text. Analysis. Instructions and material were not separated. Put the contract inside clear tags or under a heading, and state the question outside the material. Scenario D. A marketer wants ideas for a campaign name but gets five similar suggestions. Analysis. For brainstorming, ask for quantity and variety: "Give 25 names across five styles: playful, premium, descriptive, invented words and metaphors. Then shortlist your top five against these criteria."
Scenario E. A manager wants Claude to draft a performance review based on "what you know about Sam."
Analysis. Claude knows nothing about Sam beyond what is provided. The manager must supply specific, factual evidence and goals, and the review remains the manager's judgment. Chapter 7 covers why people decisions need human accountability.
Key points
Context and audience fix most weak prompts.
Decompose big tasks; review between steps.
Iterate with specific feedback. Repeated corrections belong in the prompt or Project instructions. Grounding in sources and permission to say "I don't know" reduce hallucination.
Common traps
Answers that fix a weak prompt by switching models rather than adding context. "Make it better" style feedback instead of specific, targeted revision notes. Asking for a huge deliverable in one prompt instead of decomposing it.
Check yourself
Which two prompt elements most often fix a generic output?
What is prompt chaining, and why does it help with large deliverables?
You have corrected Claude's tone in every chat for a week. What should you do? Why should pasted documents be separated from your instructions?
Rewrite this prompt to be stronger: "Give me ideas for the team offsite."
Prompting and task execution
Answers. (1) Context and audience. (2) Using each step's output as the next step's input; it creates checkpoints and catches errors early. (3) Put the tone rule, with an example, into Project instructions or memory. (4) So Claude does not confuse material with instructions, and so hidden instructions in documents are treated as data. (5) For example: "Suggest 15 activities for a one-day offsite for 12 engineers in Toronto in May, budget $150 per person, mixing team building and planning. Group them by type and flag any that need booking more than a month ahead."
Exercise
Take a vague prompt you used recently. Rewrite it with task, context, audience, constraints and format. Compare the two outputs side by side.