If you use Claude only to ask questions, you may be missing opportunities to put it to work. Writing emails, reviewing reports, developing business plans, and organizing related work are practical ways to begin.
In this tutorial, I walk through these tasks using a simple example: launching an oatmeal raisin cookie product. You can follow the same approach and adapt the prompts to your own work.
Watch the complete tutorial below, then use the prompts in this guide to practice.
1. Get Started with Claude
Visit claude.ai and sign in or create an account.
Begin with the prompt box, where you enter your questions and instructions. Familiarize yourself with the navigation and where to find previous conversations.
The tutorial walks through the interface used during recording. Menus and feature availability may differ depending on your account and later updates.
For your first exercise, choose a specific task with a clear outcome.
2. Write and Improve a Business Email
In the tutorial, we start by asking Claude to draft an email to a supplier:
Write a professional email to a supplier requesting a quotation for a bulk order of oatmeal raisin cookies. Include pricing, quantity, delivery details, and a polite closing.
Read the draft and decide what needs adjusting. For example:
Make this email friendlier while keeping it professional.
This demonstrates an important habit: treat the first response as a draft.
You can ask for shorter paragraphs, a different tone, or additional details. Before sending the email, replace placeholders and check that it reflects what you actually want to request.
3. Summarize a Report and Ask Follow-Up Questions
Next, the tutorial uses a sample sales report to demonstrate document analysis.
Upload your sample document and try:
Summarize this report and highlight the most important findings, revenue figures, and key takeaways.
Then ask focused questions:
Which product generated the highest revenue?
What were the biggest expenses?
Which areas need improvement?
What recommendations would you make based on this report?
The value comes from exploring the information through follow-up questions. Check important figures against the original document, and distinguish findings supported by the report from suggestions generated by Claude.
For practice, use sample data that you are comfortable uploading.
4. Create and Refine a Launch Plan with Artifacts
The next demonstration moves from a conversation to a working document.
We ask Claude to create a product launch plan:
Create a detailed product launch plan for a new oatmeal raisin cookie product. Include the target audience, marketing strategy, pricing, launch timeline, and business goals.
The tutorial shows how to develop and refine the plan as an Artifact. We then request a shorter version:
Make this product launch plan more concise while keeping all the important information.
Finally, we add another section:
Add a sales forecast section with estimated monthly revenue and projected sales growth.
Treat generated forecasts as illustrative assumptions, not verified business predictions. Provide real inputs and review the calculations before using them for decisions.
The exercise shows how to build a useful document through several rounds of revision.
5. Organize Related Work with Projects
For the cookie launch, we have research, a launch plan, and several related questions. The tutorial brings these materials together in a Project called “Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Launch.”
We add the supporting files and set these Project instructions:
Always respond using clear bullet points. Keep explanations concise, practical, and focused on business growth.
Then we ask:
Based on the research document and product launch plan, what should I prioritize for a successful product launch?
This provides a practical example of organizing background materials and response preferences around an ongoing piece of work.
6. Explore Connectors
The tutorial also introduces Connectors and shows where to explore available integrations.
Start by identifying a task you want help with, such as finding information in files or reviewing relevant messages. Then check whether an available connector supports that task.
Read the requested permissions before connecting a service. Available actions depend on the integration and the access you grant.
7. Use Skills for Repeatable Tasks
The final demonstration focuses on consistency.
If you repeatedly ask for business emails with the same tone and structure, that recurring approach is a candidate for a Skill.
In the tutorial, we begin with:
Help me create a skill for writing professional business emails. The tone should be professional but friendly, with short paragraphs, clear language, no unnecessary explanations, and an appropriate closing.
After creating and enabling the Skill, we test it with:
Write an email to a supplier about a delayed delivery.
Review the result to see whether it follows the intended style. Refine the Skill if needed.
A useful distinction from this example is that the Project organizes the cookie-launch context, while the Skill provides a reusable method for writing business emails.
Put the Tutorial into Practice
Choose one task from your own work. Draft an email, summarize a sample report, or develop a simple plan. Review the result, ask a follow-up question, and improve it.
The goal is to learn how to guide Claude and evaluate its output—not simply copy the first answer.
Learn Claude with Instructor-Led Training
Want guided practice and the opportunity to ask questions?
Ohio Computer Academy offers instructor-led technology training online and in class in Dublin, Ohio. Explore our Learn Claude Basics course to continue building your skills.
Explore Claude Basics Training
Chandraish Sinha is the Founder and President of Ohio Computer Academy, a leading institution committed to delivering high-quality IT education. With a passion for teaching and a belief in his company’s mission—Inspire, Educate & Evolve—Chandraish brings over 25 years of experience in the Information Technology industry.
Explore more of his work on his Amazon Author Profile.
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