Estimated time: 20 minutes

Learning objectives

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• Start a new conversation with Claude and navigate the interface
• Write effective prompts using clear, specific language
• Upload files and images to provide Claude with additional context
• Use follow-up messages to iterate and refine Claude’s responses

Getting started with Claude.ai

Key takeaways

• Claude is a powerful, intelligent collaborator that amplifies your capabilities across all of your work. Claude brings AI intelligence, but you bring the context and expertise that makes the work meaningful.
• The best approach when speaking to Claude is like you would a coworker—naturally, concisely, and conversationally.
• Before your next conversation with Claude, consider: setting the stage (your role, objectives, and context), defining the task (what action you want Claude to take), and specifying rules (style, tone, and examples).
• When you upload relevant documents or background information into a chat, Claude considers that content in its response—think of it as a shortcut so Claude can understand what your needs are.
• The real power of Claude comes with continued and frequent communication, not just one-off prompts.

Starting your first conversation

When you open Claude.ai, you’ll see a clean interface with a text input area at the bottom of the screen.

Your prompts can range from simple questions (like brainstorming code names for a new feature) to complex requests to co-create files.

Writing effective prompts

All interactions with Claude begin with a prompt, and these prompts, combined with other context, impact Claude’s response. The best approach when speaking to Claude is like you would a coworker—naturally, concisely, and conversationally.

But you may ask, what is a good prompt? Before your next conversation with Claude, consider a few things:

1. Setting the stage: What is your role and what are your objectives? Is there context about your work that Claude should know about?
2. Defining the task: What action do you want Claude to take? Do you want Claude to write, analyze, build, or something else?
3. Specifying rules: What’s the style or tone you want Claude to use? Are there examples that you can attach to show Claude what you’re looking for?

Putting it together

Here’s an example prompt that uses all three elements:

“I’m the marketing lead at an indie streaming startup, and we’re preparing an investor pitch deck for Series A investors. Can you research the current state of the independent film streaming market and identify key trends, competitor positioning, and growth opportunities? Use current web research with citations and structure it as a professional report of up to 5 pages, with an executive summary, market analysis, competitive landscape, and growth opportunities.”

In this prompt:

• Setting the stage: We tell Claude this is for an investor pitch deck for a new indie streaming app—that’s the context and objective.
• Defining the task: We provide the specific action (research the market) with relevant details (trends, competitors, opportunities).
• Specifying rules: We ask for current web research with citations, structured as a professional report—telling Claude exactly what style and format we need.

Want to go deeper? This prompt framework is adapted from the 4D Framework for AI Fluency, developed through research collaboration between Professor Rick Dakan (Ringling College of Art and Design) and Professor Joseph Feller (University College Cork). The framework identifies four core competencies—Delegation, Description, Discernment, and Diligence—that enable effective collaboration with AI.

Take our free AI Fluency course to learn how all four competencies work together to enable efficient, effective, ethical, and safe AI use.

Adding context

Uploads, connectors, and custom preferences offer ways to give Claude even more context about your work.

Claude can analyze both text and visual elements (like images, charts, and graphics) in PDFs and other documents. Supported file types include PDF, DOCX, CSV, TXT, and common image formats like PNG and JPEG.

Some practical ways to use file uploads:

• Upload a document and ask Claude to summarize the key points
• Share an image and ask Claude to describe or analyze what it sees
• Attach a spreadsheet and ask Claude to identify trends in the data
• Upload code and ask Claude to explain how it works or find bugs

Once uploaded, Claude will automatically attempt to parse the file’s content. In the chat, the file appears as an attachment and you can then prompt Claude about it.

Pro-tip: If you’d like Claude to consider specific preferences in every response, go to Settings > General > ‘What personal preferences should Claude consider?’ to set preferences that apply to every conversation.

Iterating on Claude’s responses

Conversations with Claude are meant to be iterative. Chaining bite-sized prompts together allows for a natural dialogue where you guide the conversation based on Claude’s replies.

If Claude’s first response isn’t quite what you wanted, you have several options:

Ask follow-up questions: Build on Claude’s response by asking for more detail, a different angle, or clarification. For example: “Can you expand on the second point?” or “That’s helpful, but can you make it more concise?”

Provide feedback: Tell Claude what you liked and didn’t like about its response. “This is good, but the tone is too formal. Can you make it more conversational?”

Redirect or restart: If Claude went in a different direction than you intended, simply steer it back. “Actually, I was asking about X, not Y. Let me clarify…”. Worst case, restart your conversation in a new chat to fully refresh the context.

Pro tip: You can also click the pencil icon on any of your messages to edit and resubmit your prompt — useful when you want to refine your request rather than add a new message.

Personalizing Claude

There are two features that help Claude work better for you over time to increase the power of your prompts.

Memory automatically saves key context from your conversations — your role, preferences, past decisions, and working style — so you don’t have to repeat yourself every time you start a new chat. For example, if you tell Claude you work in marketing at a B2B company, it’ll remember that context going forward. You can review, edit, or delete anything Claude remembers anytime in Settings, and memory syncs across all your devices.

Styles let you customize how Claude communicates. Choose from preset options — like concise, formal, or explanatory — or create your own custom style by describing exactly how you want Claude to write. Once set, your style applies across all conversations automatically.

Put it into practice

Before moving on, try prompting Claude with a question or task. If you need an idea to get started, feel free to explore our use-case gallery.

What’s next

In the next lesson, we’ll explore how to give Claude direction—adjusting its tone, format, and approach to match exactly what you need.

Feedback

As you progress through the course, we’d love to hear from you about how you are using concepts from the course in your work and any feedback you may have. Share your feedback here.