Map the decision journey of a student buying a first laptop

You are building a map of how a student actually moves from 'I need a laptop' to 'I own one', using real stories. The useful part is the weakest stage: the point where students are most confused and no brand seems to help.

• What will your five stages be, and will you let the interviews decide them rather than a textbook?
• Which three students will you interview, and do they differ enough (course, budget, city) to be interesting?
• How will you record feelings like worry or excitement, not just actions?
• How will you decide which stage is weakest: most confusion, longest delay, or most reliance on strangers?

A five-stage map where each stage lists the real questions students asked, where they looked for answers and how they felt, plus three specific ideas a laptop brand could use at the weakest stage, each tied to something a student said.

Copying a standard 'awareness, consideration, purchase' funnel and pouring the interviews into it. Let the stages come from the stories; a senior's advice or a shop visit may deserve its own stage.

• Notes from three students who bought a laptop in the last year, each retelling the story in order
• One text file per student, with names removed, saved in a single folder
• Screenshots or notes from the official pages of two laptop brands, showing what help each offers to buyers

AI must not invent student questions, feelings or sources. Every question on the map must come from one of your three interviews; brand pages tell you what a brand offers, not what students think.

1. 3.1 Prepare a neutral interview guideCLAUDE CHAT

   Why this tool: Claude can suggest prompts that get people retelling a story in order without steering them.

   Ask for a short guide, then cut it to questions you would actually ask. Run the three interviews and type up each one in its own file.

   Prompt to copy · fill in the [brackets]Copy

   I am interviewing [number] students who bought their first laptop recently. I want them to retell the story in order, including who they asked and how they felt. Suggest six open questions and two gentle follow-ups. Avoid naming any brand, shop or website in the questions.

2. 3.2 Let Claude read the interview folderCLAUDE WORKING ON YOUR FILES (FORMERLY COWORK)

   Why this tool: Working across all three files at once, Claude can line up the stories stage by stage.

   Put the three anonymised interview files in one folder and ask Claude to produce a draft table: stages as rows, students as columns, with quotes in each cell.

   Prompt to copy · fill in the [brackets]Copy

   In this folder are [number] anonymised interviews with students about buying a first laptop. Draft a table with up to five stages as rows and one column per student. In each cell, put the questions they asked, where they looked and how they felt, with short quotes. Mark any cell where a student said nothing for that stage as 'not mentioned'. Do not fill gaps with guesses.

   Before you let it act: Before it starts, confirm the folder holds only the anonymised files, with no names or phone numbers, and that you are asking for a draft table, not changes to the files.

3. 3.3 Fix the stages against the real storiesCLAUDE CHAT

   Why this tool: A short back-and-forth helps you test whether each stage is real or a textbook leftover.

   Reread your notes and move, merge or rename stages so each matches what at least two students did. Mark confused, worried and excited moments on the map.

4. 3.4 Find the weakest stage and draft brand ideasCLAUDE CHAT

   Why this tool: Asking Claude to attack your ideas shows which ones rest on real student pain.

   Compare the weakest stage with what the two brand pages offer. Write three ideas yourself, then ask Claude to critique them.

   Prompt to copy · fill in the [brackets]Copy

   Students in my study were most stuck at this stage: [describe stage and quotes]. Two laptop brands' pages offer this help: [your notes]. Here are my three ideas for a brand: [ideas]. For each, tell me which student quote supports it, what could go wrong, and whether a brand page already does something similar.

• Each question on the map can be traced to one of the three interviews
• Every 'not mentioned' cell is still marked, not quietly filled
• The weakest stage is justified with quotes from at least two students
• What you say about each brand matches what you saw on its official page
• All three ideas are aimed at the weakest stage, not a general one
• Read a sample of raw answers yourself before trusting any grouping
• Say how many people or observations the finding rests on

AI likes to insert an 'online reviews' stage for every student because it is common. Check whether your three students really did it, or whether a senior or shopkeeper did that job.

• Three anonymised interview files kept as evidence
• A map with five stages, questions, sources and feelings
• The weakest stage clearly marked with reasons
• Three brand ideas, each tied to a quote

A wide one-page map with stages left to right, a row of feeling markers underneath, and the three ideas in a box beside the weakest stage.

Explain how you chose the weakest stage and which student moment convinced you. Say what you would test first if a brand gave you a week.