Edit, adapt, refine, and compare outputs for the intended audience

Key points

1. 1

   Adapting for an audience changes content, structure and tone, not just length. An engineering incident account becomes a customer update by leading with impact and next steps in plain language; shortening it to 200 words leaves it written for engineers.

2. 2

   For executives making a decision under time pressure, lead with the recommendation, the decision requested and the headline numbers; move methodology and supporting detail to an appendix. Density is the problem, not slide count; shrinking fonts does not help.

3. 3

   Ask for alternatives and compare them: two or three versions organized differently (by phase, by owner, by risk; six slides versus fourteen) evaluated against how the output will actually be used. Merge the best elements. The person chooses; asking Claude which version it prefers outsources a judgement that depends on knowing the room.

4. 4

   Give explicit criteria rather than adjectives. "Make it better", "warmer", "more executive" produce generic drift; "must cover security review, contract sign-off and payment setup, one owner per item" gives Claude something concrete to critique and revise against.

5. 5

   Give examples rather than descriptions of voice. To match a CEO's style, paste two or three of their previous messages; "make it sound like the CEO" yields generic executive-speak.

6. 6

   Fix what the model could not know: authority (a refund or discount the agent cannot offer), confirmed facts (whether roles will be affected), company policy, the specific customer's history. Claude has no way to know which claims are verified; do not delegate that with an instruction like "remove anything unverified".

7. 7

   Replace boilerplate with specifics. "We regret any inconvenience" reads as a template to a customer whose order was lost twice; refer to their situation and what you will actually do.

8. 8

   Keep the human as author and approver. Edit the draft, send it in your own words, and route it to the person whose name is on it (the CEO reads the all-hands aloud, the agent sends the email). Forwarding a raw draft with "AI-generated, needs a pass" hands the refinement to the busiest person.

9. 9

   Do not let a tone rewrite paper over a content problem, and do not escalate a commitment Claude invented to get it approved; correct the content first.

10. 10

    More is not better: doubling checklist items, adding data to prove rigour, or keeping every methodology slide reduces usability for the audience the output is meant to serve.

11. 11

    Inline editing in artifacts (highlight text and ask Claude to change just that part), editing an earlier message to branch a new version, and version history let you iterate on alternatives without losing earlier work.

12. 12

    Anti-patterns the exam uses as distractors: send as-is with an apology on top; shorten instead of adapt; "make it better" loops; let Claude pick its own best version; a disclaimer instead of an edit.

Read the source

• What are artifacts and how do I use them?
• Be clear, direct, and detailed
• Use examples (multishot prompting)
• Claude Certified Associate – Foundations Exam Guide