Claude Cowork: Hands-On Tutorial
Go beyond chat. Point Claude at a folder of your own documents and put it to work on them. Not a chat window you paste into, a working session that reads your files, produces real output, and can do it again next month.
Length
3 hours
Format
Remote (Teams or Zoom) or on-site
Audience
Analysts, documentation, operations, PMO
Level
No experience needed, no coding
The problem
Teams try Claude in a chat window, get a fluent answer, and cannot tell where it came from or whether to trust it. Cowork works directly in a folder of your documents, which changes both what is possible and what needs checking.
What your team walks away with
- A working folder Claude can reach, and a clear picture of what it cannot.
- The habit of asking where an answer came from, every time.
- A real status report produced in your own template, then read properly to find what is wrong.
- The difference between a fault you fix by asking again and a fault caused by what you gave it.
- A reusable procedure, proved on next month’s input in a fresh session with one line.
The labs
1
Getting set up
~45 min
Connect a project folder, understand the permission model and where the work runs, local or cloud, and what that means for sensitive documents.
2
Asking your documents questions
~35 min
Cross-check transcripts, a specification and a tracker, and always ask where the answer came from.
3
Producing a first draft
~40 min
A real status report in a real Word template, then reading it properly to find what is wrong rather than skimming it.
4
Making it repeatable
~40 min
Standing instructions, a named source of truth, and the procedure wrapped as a skill.
Optional take-home: the built-in browser and scheduled tasks.
Who it's for
- Analysts, documentation teams, operations and PMO staff.
- Anyone who works from a folder of project documents rather than a blank page.
- No prior Claude experience and no coding required.
What you need
- Claude Desktop on a Claude Team or Enterprise plan, with Cowork enabled.
- A folder of realistic project documents is supplied: meeting transcripts, steering notes, a specification in Word, a tracker in Excel. Teams often bring their own instead.
- A setup guide and check script go out a week before.
Taught by James Harmon
Independent consultant and trainer based in the Chicago area, specializing in the Anthropic Claude ecosystem. Author of Design Patterns for AI Agents. Over 20 years building software for companies including JPMorgan Chase, State Farm and Foot Locker. Runs XoSelf.
XoSelf also takes on a small number of Claude consulting engagements: rollout, agents and MCP integrations. Mention it in your request.
About the bookRequest information
Tell us a little about your team and James will come back with dates, pricing and what the day would look like for you.