Claude for Product Managers
The Context Equation
Before every Claude session, ask yourself: "Does Claude have what a smart new hire would need to do this task well on their first day?"
A smart new hire needs:
- What the product is: who it's for, what problem it solves
- Who the user is: their job, their context, their pain
- What you're trying to accomplish: the actual outcome, not just the task
- Relevant constraints: technical, timeline, organizational
- What you already know: decisions made, hypotheses you hold
This doesn't require a long preamble. A well-structured two-paragraph brief changes output quality more than any prompt trick.
This doesn't require a long preamble. A well-structured two-paragraph brief changes output quality more than any prompt trick.
Example of a thin brief vs. a good brief:
❌ Bad: "Help me write acceptance criteria for a search feature"
✅ Good: "Flowdesk is a project management tool for operations teams at mid-market companies. Users are operations managers who track dozens of recurring processes. We're adding search because users currently can't find old tasks or templates they scroll through hundreds of items manually. The search feature needs to cover task names, template names, and assignee names. Users are non-technical. Write acceptance criteria for the search results page."
Same prompt. Completely different output.