Stop Correcting, Start
Delegating to Claude

Having run a small web design business for ten years, followed by another ten as a business manager for a small construction marketing firm definitely taught me a lot. In particular, getting a good brief from the client makes all the difference, because a bad brief will almost always bring you bad results, no matter how good the people involved are. Vague instructions, no reference points, "just do what you think" - and you'd be back for revision three still nowhere near what the client actually wanted. The problem was never really with the designer. It was that nobody had agreed the final outcome before the work started.

Funnily enough, Claude works exactly the same way, but most people brief it like they've never briefed anyone in their life. One rushed line, hit send, hope for the best - using Claude like a one-armed bandit and expecting the jackpot every time. So when it comes back wrong, they correct it. It comes back different but still wrong, they give up.

After my own experimentation (and numerous failings), I discovered that the people who get AI to work go at it differently. They develop a fully-rounded brief before anything gets built, and then they leave it alone to get on with the job. No hovering, no re-explaining, no chasing revisions. That's the whole shift - and it's the same shift that separates a smooth agency job from a painful one.

We came across a similar framework in a guide by Mariah Brunner, which is worth a read. Here's how we actually put it into practice running Claude Cowork day to day for BUDD 7 and our clients.

Take a proper brief first

No designer worth their fee starts work without a brief, you can't. And the same principle applies here - before Claude starts on a single file, get it to think the whole job through and show you the plan. In Cowork, tell it plainly - "don't make any changes yet, walk me through your approach first" - and it will read what it needs, think the job through, and give you a plan to sign off before anything is created or edited.

The benefit is that mistakes get caught on paper first, rather than in the finished document, spreadsheet, or website file. It costs you two minutes of reading, but it saves you having to explain over and over again that it's gone off in the wrong direction.

Ask the questions a good (prompt) designer would

A good designer never takes a single line brief at face value. They ask about the audience, what's currently working, what isn't, the must-haves, the tone, the deadline - because the client rarely spells out everything they need the first time, and really how could they? Claude will do exactly the same, but only if you tell it to. Add a line like this to almost any request:

That single sentence changes the whole process. Instead of filling the gaps with guesses, it surfaces the decisions that are actually yours to make - tone, format, which job this is for, what "finished" and "good" looks like. You answer a few quick questions up front and you'll saves a whole lot of "no, not quite like that."

Once it's briefed, leave it to get on with it

This is the part that actually gets back time. Once you've got a plan you're happy with, you don't need to hover over every stage like some kind of micro-manager. In Cowork, it breaks the job into stages and then works through them in sequence, rather than stopping to ask permission at every touch and turn.

This works because you did the first two steps properly. You're not letting it loose on a vague idea, you're letting it execute a brief you've seen and approved.

Keep the style guide current

Every marketing department or agency should have a style guide that a new recruit can read before they lay hands on any live project. Project Instructions do the same job for Claude - they're what it reads at the start of every session to remind itself about your business, your preferences, and how you want the job done. The better quality the file, the less you have to correct or repeat. It's genuinely one of the biggest time-savers a small business has available to it. We've recently taught Claude to build ready-to-go carousel slides for Instagram based on a client's latest blog post, which has reduced a full afternoon's work into 10-15 minutes.

Any time you teach Claude something new, correct a recurring mistake, or discover a new way of doing things, tell Claude to add it to the Project Instructions so it remembers it for next time. Each conversation then starts a little further on than the last. One thing worth keeping in mind though - don't let the instructions balloon in size. They get loaded in every time you prompt Claude, so a bloated file wastes space that slows down/complicates the process. When you add something new, it's worth trimming something old or no longer relevant (tip: you can ask Claude to review the instructions for you and to report back with suggested improvements).

The brief, ready to copy

Here's a brief template built around the same principles, adapted for Cowork. Paste it at the start of anything you want to properly hand off, fill in the one bracket, and it takes care of the questioning and planning stage automatically.

If you find yourself doing a certain kind of job often, it's worth saving this as a Claude skill rather than retyping it each time - or you can add it to your Project Instructions file.

Fewer revisions, better outcomes

Briefing properly isn't a time waste, it's the opposite. You make the decisions up front where they're quick and easy to change, then let Claude get on with carrying them out. Brief, approve, release - the same process that back in the day made good agency jobs flow great. That's how a twenty-message correction marathon turns into a few good questions and a finished result, first time.

If this resonates with you and you'd like help with how to actually use AI so it saves you time rather than just creating another job then get in touch, or give Natasha a buzz in the chat (she's another example of how AI can save you time).