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CCAO-F · Study Guide

← Domain 3: Product and Model Selection

3.3 · Lesson 3 of 4

Cost, Speed, and Quality Alignment

What you need to know

Every task sits somewhere on a triangle of cost, speed, and quality. The skill is picking the smallest model and lightest approach that meets the quality bar, rather than defaulting to the strongest tool everywhere.

Set the quality bar first

Meeting notes for yourself and a board paper do not need the same model or the same effort. Define what “good enough” means before choosing the tier. Internal notes and a board-ready analysis are different jobs.

Start small, step up when needed

Trial the lighter option on a sample of real work. If the quality holds, keep it. If it fails in a specific way, move to a stronger tier for that task only. Use a faster tier for high-volume or time-sensitive work, and a stronger tier where errors are expensive.

Prompts close gaps cheaply

Clearer instructions and better source material frequently lift a smaller model enough to meet the bar. Reach for a bigger model after you have fixed the prompt, not before.

Worked example

Eight recurring tasks: tagging tickets, drafting a board memo, summarising a call, checking a contract for risk, and similar. Rate quality need, speed need, and frequency. High-volume tagging stays on a light tier; ambiguous contract risk moves up. At least three tasks should not be assigned to the largest model — that is the pattern the exam rewards.

Exam traps

  • Always use the strongest model

    Usually wrong. Match the smallest tier that passes your quality check.

  • Jump to a bigger model before fixing the prompt

    Clearer instructions and better source material often close a quality gap more cheaply.

  • Ignore volume and frequency

    A board memo once a month and ticket tagging all day sit on different points of the cost/speed/quality triangle.

  • Spend plan capacity on trivial tasks

    Usage limits are real. Burning capacity on easy work leaves less for important work.

Practice scenario

A support team tags hundreds of routine tickets daily. Quality bar is “correct tag.” Leadership wants the strongest model everywhere “just in case.” What is the aligned choice?

Choose one answer

Build exercise

Build a Cost, Speed, and Quality Decision Table

3.3 · Intermediate · ~30 min · claude.ai

What you will practise

  • How to weigh cost, speed, and quality for a given task.
  • Why the strongest model everywhere is usually the wrong default.
  • How volume and frequency change the choice.
  • How to decide when a quality gain is worth the extra cost or wait.

Build the Domain 3 decision table so every task has a tier tied to cost, speed, or quality.

Open Domain 3 exercises

Path: /learn/claude-associate/exercises/3-product-model-selection

Sources

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