Make Claude interview you first

The hardest part of using AI is knowing what to tell it. Everyone says add more context and write better instructions, but nobody hands you a list of what matters this time. So you stare at the empty box, type a one-liner, and the answer that comes back could have been written for anyone.

Flip the job around.

Claude knows exactly what information it's missing. Make it ask you for it. Add one line to the end of your request: before you answer, interview me for everything you need to give me a proper answer.

Say you need a proposal for a big job. Claude comes back with questions. Who is the client? What exactly are you delivering? What does it cost? Why should they pick you over someone cheaper? These are questions you would never have thought to answer up front, and every one of them makes the draft sharper.

I answer out loud. I use an app called Wispr Flow. I hold down a key on my keyboard, it records what I say, transcribes it, and drops it straight into Claude. Talking through the questions takes about two minutes, and the finished proposal is built from my actual answers instead of Claude's guesses.

The interview works for anything that matters: a difficult email, a quote, a job ad. The bigger the gap between what's in your head and what's in the chat box, the more it's worth.

Let Claude pull the brief out of your head, one question at a time. Ask it to interview you before it writes a word.