Translating Business Requirements into Claude Solutions
Audience: professionals who use Claude at work, no coding or API knowledge needed. Verified = checked against Anthropic's documentation or help center on 2026-10-16. Design guidance = widely taught practice, not a documented rule.
This note is mostly design guidance; one anchor from Anthropic: good success criteria are specific, measurable, achievable and relevant (verified).
Step 1: state the outcome, not the tool
"We need an AI assistant" is not a requirement. "Cut the time to produce a weekly client summary from 3 hours to 45 minutes without losing accuracy" is.
Step 2: ask the clarifying questions
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Who uses the result, and who is affected? | Audience, tone, risk |
| What exactly is produced? (format, length, detail) | Acceptance |
| What inputs exist, and are they clean and allowed to be used? | Data and privacy (D6.1) |
| What does "good" look like? Give examples | Success criteria |
| What can go wrong, and how bad is it? | Review level (D2.1) |
| What is fixed? (deadline, tools, policy, budget) | Constraints |
| Who checks and approves? | Human role |
Step 3: turn it into a Claude-ready brief
- Task in one sentence.
- Context and audience.
- Inputs to supply, labelled.
- Output format and length.
- Rules: must include, must avoid, tone.
- Success checks: how you will judge it (a checklist or sample answer).
- Human steps: what a person reviews or decides.
Test the brief with two or three real examples, including a messy one, before rolling it out (D7.1).
Step 4: decide how to run it
One-off chat, a Project with standing instructions, a connector to pull data, or a repeatable skill (D3.3).
Exam traps
- Starting from the tool instead of the outcome.
- No definition of "good", so nobody can tell if it works.
- Ignoring data limits until after you built it.
- Skipping real test cases.
- Leaving out who reviews the output.
References
- Define success criteria — checked Oct 16, 2026
Check your understanding
Better requirement: "use AI for reports" or "cut weekly report time from 3 hours to 45 minutes at the same accuracy"?Show answerHide answer
Answer
The second: specific and measurable.What should you test a new brief with?Show answerHide answer
Answer
Real examples, including a messy one.Why list human steps up front?Show answerHide answer
Answer
They set the review level and responsibility.