4.2 — Using Claude for Research, Planning and Process Optimisation

CCAO-F Domain 4 · Task 4.2

What You Need to Know

Claude produces the first pass; you own the judgement that follows.

Research at Two Scales

• Web search — straightforward factual queries answered in one or two lookups
• Research mode — multiple searches that build on each other; cited findings; bigger multi-source jobs

A citation shows where a finding came from, not that it is right. Check anything important before repeating it.

Plans Are Built from Stated Constraints

Claude plans confidently around constraints you never mentioned. Nothing in the output warns you. Put the real constraints in the brief, then ask for the assumptions it rests on. An unconstrained plan that reads like competence is more dangerous than an obviously bad one.

The Optimisation Loop

1. Describe the process and its constraints
2. Ask for candidate bottlenecks, and the evidence that would confirm each one
3. Go and get that evidence
4. Change the step the evidence indicts

The most expensive mistake is optimising a step that was never the constraint. Plausible and real causes coincide often enough to tempt you, and rarely enough to be expensive.

Key Concept: In this objective’s stems, the keyed answer checks the evidence before changing anything.

Exam Traps

• Treating a plausible, well-structured plan as a checked one
• Changing the process on the strength of the best-sounding hypothesis
• Substituting more research for local evidence