Claude Certified Engineers logoCCE

CCAO-F · Study Guide

← Domain 1: Prompting and Task Execution

1.4 · Lesson 4 of 4

Prompt Strategy by Task Type

What you need to know

Different workplace tasks need different prompting in claude.ai. Analysis wants source material and a clear question. Research wants scope and a way to check claims. Drafting wants audience, voice, and examples. Brainstorming wants room to explore before you narrow. The exam pairs a scenario with the prompt strategy that fits the task type.

Match the prompt to the task

  • 1. Analysis

    Supply the data or document, state the question, and say what a useful finding looks like. Ask Claude to separate observation from inference and to show assumptions.

  • 2. Research

    Define scope, time frame, and what counts as a good source. Ask for claims you can verify and for uncertainty to be flagged instead of hidden.

  • 3. Drafting

    Give audience, purpose, tone, length, and ideally a short sample of the voice you want. A brief example beats a long style lecture.

  • 4. Brainstorming

    Ask for many options first without ranking. Run a second prompt to evaluate and narrow against criteria.

Summarising is related: state the audience and the decision the summary supports so Claude knows what to keep and what to cut.

Scale effort to risk

A lightweight prompt is fine for an internal brainstorm. A client-facing or board-facing analysis deserves explicit criteria, supplied sources, and a verification step afterward. The exam often tests whether you over-invest in a low-stakes ask or under-specify a high-stakes one.

Worked example

Same topic, four prompts

Topic: adopting a new expense tool. Analysis pastes survey responses and asks for themes with counts. Research asks for category options with named sources and open questions. Drafting asks for an employee announcement with tone and length. Brainstorming asks for at least ten rollout ideas before any ranking.

Swap the prompts (use the drafting style on the analysis task) and quality drops — that swap is how you prove you understand task-type fit.

Exam traps

  • Use a drafting-style prompt for research (or the reverse)

    Research needs scope, sources, and uncertainty flags. Drafting needs audience, voice, and length. Mixing them quietly ruins results.

  • For research, demand one clean confident number for the board

    Pressure for a single confident figure encourages unsupported claims. Ask for provenance and gaps.

  • For brainstorming, ask for the best idea immediately

    Judging while generating makes Claude self-censor. Generate many options first, then evaluate.

  • Match effort the same way for every task

    A rough brainstorm can be lightweight. A high-stakes analysis needs sources, criteria, and a verification step.

Practice scenario

A school fundraiser committee wants idea options before it commits to a plan. Which request best matches a brainstorming task?

Choose one answer

Build exercise

Match the Prompt to Four Different Task Types

1.4 · Intermediate · ~35 min · claude.ai

What you will practise

  • How analysis, research, drafting, and brainstorming need different instructions.
  • Why analysis needs the data and the question, and drafting needs audience and voice.
  • Why brainstorming should ask for range, not a single best answer.
  • How the same topic needs a different prompt for each task.

Full steps, hints, and the skill check live on the domain exercises page. Keep this lesson open while you work so you can apply what you just studied.

Open Domain 1 exercises

Path: /learn/claude-associate/exercises/1-prompting-task-execution

Sources

View progress