Files & Artifacts

Claude becomes a document factory.

• Competitor pricing analysis spreadsheet (xlsx)
• One-page service menu PDF
• Proposal template (Word doc)
• You'll never write a basic business document from scratch again

Up till now Claude was a conversation partner.

You typed, it typed back. Fine for ideas. Bad for anything you actually need to hand to a customer.

Tonight it becomes a document factory.

End your prompt with the file type.

• "...output as a downloadable spreadsheet (xlsx or CSV)"
• "...output as a downloadable PDF"
• "...output as a Word doc artifact"
• "...output as a one-page artifact I can save"
• "...in a code block I can copy"

You don't edit it. You tell Claude what to change.

Drop the warranty column.
Add a column for [X].
Move the pricing section above warranty.
The 'why us' section is corporate — rewrite
   it more local.
Change asphalt to $8/sqft.

Same iteration habit you've used all course. Just point at the artifact.

Competitor pricing analysis.

From the competitor PDFs in your Project knowledge — generate a comparison table showing what they emphasize, what they hide, and what gaps you can exploit.

One-page service menu.

Customer-facing. Hand it to a homeowner at the kitchen table. Roofing services, solar services, the bundle, what to expect, why us, CTA.

The proposal template.

The document that gets signed. Header, scope, timeline, pricing, warranty, payment, signatures. [BRACKETS] for fields you fill in per job.

Use [BRACKETS] for fields you fill in per job.

Marks them visually. Claude won't try to invent the data. You scan, fill, send.

Customer: [NAME]
Address: [STREET, CITY, ZIP]
Project: [SCOPE — e.g. "tear-off + architectural shingle"]
Square footage: [SQFT]
Estimated start: [DATE]
Total: [$]

Version everything.

v1, then v2, never overwrite. You'll thank yourself when v3 is worse and you want to roll back.

Print before you trust.

A document looks different on paper than on screen. If you'll hand it to a customer, hold it in your hand first.

Specifically watch for: misaligned columns, headers cut off, weird spacing, things that look fine in Word but bad as PDF.

Fill in the proposal template for a pretend job.

Friend's house. Your mom's house. Anyone's. Real address, real sqft, real materials. Save as proposal-test-1.docx.

Session 5 — Connectors

Claude starts doing the busywork itself. We hook it up to Gmail and Calendar. The session that saves the most time.

Bring: nothing. Make sure your Gmail is the one you actually use for business.