Claude: 7 Advanced Prompt Techniques for The Best AI Model
I rewrote all my AI prompts using these techniques and you should too
Dear subscribers,
Today, I want to dive deep into how I use Claude.
While ChatGPT still has the brand recognition, all the AI power users I know use Claude. But:
You must know how to craft long prompts to get the most out of Claude.
I recently revamped all my AI prompts using the techniques from this post, so let’s walk through all 7 tips using a real prompt example.
This post is brought to you by…Amplitude
Amplitude has created the best guide out there for defining your product’s North Star metric to incentivize the right team behaviors. Get it for free with the link below.
7 advanced techniques to get the most out of Claude
To make this guide as practical as possible, let’s use the techniques below to improve this 1-line prompt for editing interview transcripts:
Edit this interview transcript - remove filler words and clean up grammar: (Paste here)
This prompt will be 20x longer when we’re done!
1. Start with your data and end with instructions
Let’s start with a tip that almost nobody knows — starting your prompt with your data and ending with your instructions can improve Claude’s response quality by 30%.
Here’s our prompt updated to start with the transcript first:
(Paste here)
Edit this interview transcript - remove filler words and clean up grammar.
2. Use XML tags to structure your prompt
Claude can sometimes mix up your data and instructions if you don’t label them clearly. The easiest way to label each section is to use XML.
Here’s our prompt updated with XML tags:
<draft>
(Paste here)
</draft><instructions>
Edit this interview transcript - remove filler words and clean up grammar.
</instructions>
3. Give Claude a specific role and task
A clear role and task can significantly improve Claude’s response accuracy and writing style. Best of all, you can ask Claude to create the role itself.
Here’s our prompt updated with a role and task:
<draft>
(Paste here)
</draft><instructions>
You are an expert transcript editor with over 15 years of experience refining spoken content for major publishing houses and media outlets. Your specialty lies in preserving the authentic voice of speakers while enhancing clarity and readability.Your task is to do a light edit on the <draft> to remove filler words and clean up grammar.
</instructions>
4. Give Claude space to think (chain of thought)
Now we get to the good stuff! “Chain of thought” is an advanced technique where you ask Claude to think through complex tasks step-by-step and share its thinking out loud using XML tags.
This technique has been proven to improve AI response quality by up to 39%
Here’s our prompt updated to use chain of thought: