Lesson 3.4
Choosing the Right Product for a Task
A decision framework that combines surface, feature and model choice so you can route any workplace task to the right part of Claude.
The previous three lessons covered surfaces, models and plans separately. Real decisions combine them. Faced with "I need to produce a competitor analysis by Thursday", you need to decide where to do it, which features to use, which model to pick, and whether Claude is even the right tool. This lesson gives a repeatable framework and applies it to typical scenarios the exam presents.
Four questions to route any task
1. What kind of work is it? Conversation and drafting; research and synthesis; repeated work over a body of documents; action in a web browser; action on files on your computer; software development; or something inside a tool you already use. Each points to a surface or feature.
2. What does Claude need to see? Nothing beyond your prompt; a few files; a standing library of documents; live web information; data inside a workplace system. This decides between a plain chat, attachments, a Project, web search or Research, and connectors.
3. How hard is it and what is at stake? This decides the model tier and whether to enable extended thinking, and it sets the verification tier from Domain 2.
4. Is the data allowed here? Confidential, personal or regulated data must go only where your organisation's plan and policy permit.
Routing table
| Task | Surface | Feature | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quick reply, rephrase, explain a term | Any, mobile fine | Plain chat | Sonnet or Haiku |
| Draft a document from your notes | Web or desktop | Attachments, Style | Sonnet |
| Recurring work against the same materials (brand guide, contracts, playbook) | Web or desktop | Project with knowledge and instructions | Sonnet, Opus for hard cases |
| Market, competitor or literature research | Web or desktop | Research, web search | Default for Research |
| Pull information from your email, calendar, docs, tickets | Web or desktop | Connectors | Sonnet |
| Complete a task on websites or web forms | Chrome | Claude in Chrome | Default |
| Process many files in a folder on your machine | Desktop | Agentic working mode | Default |
| Build or change software | Claude Code | n/a | Per developer choice |
| Deep critique, complex judgement, high-stakes analysis | Web or desktop | Extended thinking | Opus |
Worked scenarios
The competitor analysis. Research and synthesis, needing live web information, moderate stakes. Route: Research in the web app to gather and cite sources; then a Project (if this is recurring) holding the output and your internal positioning document; then Opus with extended thinking for the final "what does this mean for us" section; then Check-tier verification of every figure that will be quoted.
The weekly team update. Repeated drafting from the same kinds of inputs (ticket exports, calendar, last week's update). Route: a Project with instructions describing the format and tone, connectors to the ticketing tool and calendar so Claude pulls the raw material itself, Sonnet for speed. After two weeks of refinement the prompt becomes a single line: "Draft this week's update."
The expense claim. Action in a browser: open the expenses portal, enter line items from receipts, attach images. Route: Claude in Chrome, with receipts photographed on mobile and shared into the conversation. Claude fills the form and pauses before submission so you can check totals.
The folder of supplier contracts. Fifty PDFs on a shared drive; you want a table of renewal dates, notice periods and values. Route: desktop app agentic mode pointed at the folder, with explicit column definitions and an instruction to flag any contract where a field could not be found. Verify a sample of rows against the PDFs.
The redundancy letter. Sensitive personal data and high legal stakes. Route: first, confirm whether your organisation's plan and policy permit this content at all; on a consumer plan the answer may be no. If permitted, use Opus, extended thinking, a template supplied by HR or legal, and Audit-tier review by a human who owns the decision.
When Claude is not the tool
Claude is a poor fit when the task needs:
- a deterministic, auditable calculation that a spreadsheet or finance system already performs;
- authoritative real-time data (stock prices, inventory counts) that lives in a system of record;
- a decision that policy says a named human must make without AI input;
- data that is not permitted to leave a controlled environment.
In those cases Claude can still help around the edges (drafting the explanation, checking the logic) without being the engine.
A quick routing checklist
- Named the kind of work?
- Identified what Claude needs to see and chosen attachment, Project, search or connector accordingly?
- Picked the model and decided on extended thinking based on difficulty and stakes?
- Confirmed the data is allowed on this plan and surface?
- Set the verification tier before starting?
Exam focus
- Route tasks by four questions: kind of work, what Claude needs to see, difficulty and stakes, and whether the data is permitted.
- Recurring work against the same materials points to a Project; live information points to web search or Research; data in workplace systems points to connectors.
- Browser-based tasks route to Claude in Chrome; multi-file tasks on your machine route to the desktop app's agentic mode; software routes to Claude Code.
- Model and extended-thinking choices follow difficulty and stakes, and the verification tier is set at the same time.
- Data policy can veto any route; deterministic calculations, real-time system data and reserved human decisions are signs Claude is not the right engine.
Check yourself
5 questions
1.A reporting analyst produces the same weekly report using the same fifteen reference documents and the same formatting rules. Which setup serves this best?
2.An office manager must check availability and prices across six hotel booking websites and compile the results. Which product is the natural fit?
3.A sales enablement lead wants a small interactive calculator that reps can use to estimate deal value, shareable by link. Which feature should she ask Claude to use?
4.A developer colleague wants to make a coordinated change across hundreds of files in a software repository and run the tests. Which Claude product is designed for this?
5.An analyst wants a weekly summary that draws on documents in the company's Google Drive and discussions in Slack, without copying and pasting content into the chat each time. What is the best approach?