# Module 09: The Compound Workflow ## Demo Scenario: Competitive Intelligence Pipeline This exercise chains four Claude interactions into a single workflow. Each step produces output that feeds the next step. Run it live. --- ## The Business Context Your VP of Sales just sent you this message: "Apex Industrial announced a new product yesterday. Our sales team is getting questions. I need a competitive response brief by end of day." Four hours of work. Or one workflow. --- ## STEP 1: Research (5 minutes) **Prompt:** ``` I need to research a competitor product announcement. The company is Apex Industrial and they just announced a product called "SmartFloor" - an IoT-enabled production monitoring system. Search for information about this announcement and compile: - Product features and capabilities - Pricing (if available) - Target market - Key claims they're making - Any customer quotes or case studies mentioned Format as a raw research brief. Don't analyze yet, just gather facts. ``` **Facilitator note:** In a live training, you can actually have Claude search the web. For this exercise, provide the mock press release below as a paste-in if web search isn't available. **Mock press release (paste if needed):** ``` FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APEX INDUSTRIAL LAUNCHES SMARTFLOOR IoT PRODUCTION MONITORING CHICAGO, IL - Apex Industrial today announced SmartFloor, a comprehensive IoT-enabled monitoring system designed for manufacturing production floors. SmartFloor combines vibration sensors, thermal imaging, and machine learning to predict equipment failures up to 72 hours before they occur. Key features include: - Real-time equipment health dashboards - Predictive maintenance alerts with 72-hour advance warning - Integration with SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics ERP systems - Mobile app for floor managers with push notifications - Automated work order generation when maintenance is needed "SmartFloor reduced our unplanned downtime by 34% in the first six months," said Janet Miller, VP of Operations at Summit Manufacturing. "The ERP integration means maintenance tickets are created automatically - no more manual data entry." Pricing starts at $45,000 for installation and setup, plus $800 per month for monitoring and support. Enterprise packages with custom integrations are available. SmartFloor is available immediately for manufacturing facilities in North America. ``` --- ## STEP 2: Analysis (5 minutes) **Take the output from Step 1 and feed it into this prompt:** ``` Here is our research on Apex Industrial's new SmartFloor product: [Paste Step 1 output] Now compare it to our product, FloorWatch. Here are our specs: - Price: $38,000 installation + $650/month - Predictive maintenance alerts with 48-hour advance warning - Vibration and acoustic monitoring (no thermal imaging) - No native ERP integration (on our roadmap for Q3 2026) - Web dashboard only (no mobile app yet) - On-time delivery track record: 99.2% - Average support response time: 2.1 hours - Customer retention rate: 94% Create a structured competitive comparison: 1. Where we win (be specific and honest) 2. Where we're at parity 3. Where we have a gap 4. Severity rating for each gap (critical, moderate, minor) ``` --- ## STEP 3: Strategy (5 minutes) **Feed the comparison into this prompt:** ``` Based on this competitive analysis: [Paste Step 2 output] Draft a competitive response strategy. I need: 1. POSITIONING: How should we position FloorWatch against SmartFloor in sales conversations? What's our narrative? 2. TALK TRACKS: Write three specific talk tracks for when a prospect says: - "Apex has ERP integration and you don't." - "Apex says they can predict failures 72 hours out. You only do 48." - "Apex has a mobile app." 3. LANDMINE QUESTIONS: Write three questions our reps can ask prospects early in the conversation that highlight our advantages before Apex comes up. 4. SHORT-TERM ACTIONS: What should we do in the next 30 days to counter this? Write this for sales reps who need to use it in conversations today. ``` --- ## STEP 4: Deliverable (5 minutes) **Feed the strategy into this prompt:** ``` Take everything from the research, analysis, and strategy work above and produce a one-page Competitive Response Brief formatted for our sales team. It should include: - Header: "Competitive Alert: Apex SmartFloor" with today's date - Quick Facts box: Their price, our price, key feature comparison in 4 rows - Our Position: 2-3 sentences on how to frame FloorWatch - When Apex Comes Up: The three talk tracks, formatted as "If they say X, you say Y" - Questions to Ask: The three landmine questions - What's Coming: A note about our ERP integration timeline Keep it to one page. Use short sentences. This goes in a Slack channel today. ``` --- ## Debrief Total prompt-writing time across four steps: about 15 minutes. Total elapsed time including Claude's processing: about 20 minutes. You just produced a competitive intelligence brief that would take a typical analyst three to four hours. **Key teaching points:** 1. Each step was a different task type: Research → Analysis → Strategy → Generation. 2. The output of each step became the input for the next. Claude maintained context through the conversation. 3. The final deliverable is the only thing that gets distributed. Steps 1-3 were working documents. 4. The compound workflow is reusable. Next time a competitor announces something, swap in the new data and run the same four steps. **Exercise for participants:** Design a four-step compound workflow for a recurring task in your role. Document the prompt for each step. Test it. Calculate the time savings.