Getting Started with Claude

Read once, then work through it at the app.

1. Two things to do first

Claude 101 — https://academy.claude.com/courses/claude-101 (free, about an hour)

My AI-Augmented Analytics Guide — ../ai-workflow/

If you’ve already done the second one, just re-read the framework. Everything below assumes it:

  • COR — give Context (who you are, what you’re working on), state your Objective (what you want and why), then Refine.
  • Four follow-ups — Clarify (what?), Explore (what else?), Validate (why?), Challenge (why not?).

The tool changes; that framework doesn’t. Claude is a different assistant than Gemini, but you direct it the same way.

2. Install the desktop app

Download from https://claude.com/download, sign in. Three tabs:

Tab What it does
Chat Conversation. No access to your local files. Same as the website.
Cowork Point it at a folder; it works through multi-step tasks on its own and saves results back to that folder.
Code Works directly with files on your computer. Shows you what changed and can undo it.

Setup problems are your first exercise

You will hit something — a missing dependency, a permission dialog, an error you don’t recognize. Don’t search for it. Ask Claude. Paste the exact error, or describe what you clicked and what happened.

“I’m on Windows. I opened the Code tab, selected a folder, and got this: [paste error]. Walk me through the fix one step at a time.”

Getting unstuck is something Claude is genuinely good at, and you’ll use it far more than you’ll use it to write essays. Better to find that out on day one.

3. Exercise A — Connect Google Drive, interrogate the shared folder

Goal: run a full COR investigation on real data, on a new tool.

Setup

Go to Customize → Connectors, find Google Drive, click Connect, approve. Then in a chat, click + → Add from Google Drive.

Two different things can block you:

  • Drive doesn’t appear at all → message me. It’s a setting on my end.
  • “Access blocked: your institution’s admin needs to review Claude for Google Drive” → that’s the university’s Google admin, not me. Tell me and I’ll help you file the request.

Note: Claude reads text from Drive files. It does not see images inside documents.

What to do

The folder holds the data and the work from the previous stage of this project. Understand it well enough to explain it to someone else.

Start with orientation:

“What files are here, and what does each one contain? Flag anything you’re unsure about.”

Then run one real investigation, using all four follow-up types, exactly like the Bookcase example in the guide. Write a COR prompt to open it, then Clarify → Explore → Validate → Challenge.

Don’t stop at Validate. That’s where most people stop, and it’s where the interesting part starts.

Bring back

  1. Your Challenge prompt, and what it turned up.
  2. One thing Claude stated confidently that turned out to be wrong or overstated — and how you caught it.

The second is worth more than the first.

4. Exercise B — Publish a personal page

Goal: ship something public. Unlike an analysis, a webpage either loads or it doesn’t — so you can judge your own progress without me.

Useful side effect: you’ll have a page to put on your résumé.

What to do

You are not expected to know HTML, git, or GitHub. You will not be asked to read the code. The skill here is directing work you couldn’t do yourself, and checking the result.

Make an empty folder. Open the Code tab → Local → Select folder. Then:

“I’m a business analytics student. I want a simple personal webpage published on GitHub Pages — my name, a short bio, and a few projects. I’ve never used git or GitHub. Before we start, explain in plain English what we’re about to do and what I’ll need to do myself in a browser.”

From there, just keep talking to it. Useful moves:

  • “Do that.” / “Wait — explain that step before you run it.”
  • “I don’t know what a repository is. Explain it, then continue.”
  • “Make the projects section shorter and the heading bigger.”
  • When it breaks: “[paste the error]. What went wrong, and what should I check?”

Two habits worth practicing here:

  • Ask for the plan first. Switch the selector next to the send button to Plan mode. Claude proposes an approach without touching anything. Read it. This is Clarify, applied to a build instead of an analysis.
  • Check the output, not the code. Open the page in a browser. Is your name spelled right? Do the links work? That’s your verification step.

Bring back

  1. The URL of your live page.
  2. One thing that broke, and how you got past it.

5. Next

Once you’ve done both, you’ll notice you keep retyping the same instructions. That repetition is where we start next time. Don’t skip ahead — it only makes sense after you’ve felt it.

  • Claude 101 — https://academy.claude.com/courses/claude-101
  • AI-Augmented Analytics Guide — ../ai-workflow/
  • Download Claude — https://claude.com/download
  • Help Center — https://support.claude.com