5 Claude Features Most People Never Touch

I stumbled across a LinkedIn post this week that made me stop scrolling. Not because it was flashy, but because it laid out something most people completely overlook: Claude isn’t just a chatbot you ask random questions. It’s a full toolkit with five distinct modes, and this savvy professional broke down exactly how to use each one, step by step.

If you’ve been using Claude the same way you use Google Search, you’re leaving serious power on the table. Here’s the full breakdown, starting from the basics and working up to the features that genuinely replace parts of your workflow.

✦ Step 1: Claude Chat, the Starting Point

This is where everyone begins, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You go to Claude, you type what you need, you get a response. Simple.

But here’s where most people trip up, and the original poster nails this point perfectly:

Don’t start a new chat every time. Keep going in the same one. Claude gets smarter the more context it has.

Think of it like a conversation with a colleague. If you start from scratch every single time, they can never build on what you discussed before. Same principle applies here. Stay in the thread. Let context accumulate. The responses get sharper with every exchange.

✦ Step 2: Claude Projects, Your Team’s Knowledge Base

This is where things start getting interesting. The expert describes Projects as handing a new hire a binder on their first day: “Here’s how we do things.”

Here’s how to set it up:

1. Click “Projects” in the sidebar
2. Create a new project
3. Upload your brand voice documents, style guides, and reference files

Every chat you start inside that project is now informed by those documents. Claude doesn’t guess your tone or your preferences. It already knows them. This is especially powerful for teams where consistency matters: marketing copy, customer support templates, internal documentation. Upload once, benefit forever.

✦ Step 3: Claude Cowork, the Feature That Replaces Your Intern

This one caught my attention because of how the contributor describes it: “It opens your files. Does the work. Hands you the deliverable. You just review it.”

Here’s the process:

1. Download the Claude desktop app
2. Click “Cowork” next to Chat
3. Grant access to your folders
4. Describe the outcome you want

Notice that last step. You’re not telling Claude which file to open or which column to copy. You’re describing what you want to end up with. Claude figures out the path to get there. This is a critical mindset shift, and we’ll come back to it at the end.

✦ Step 4: Claude Skills, Teaching Claude Your Recipes

The mind behind this post uses a brilliant analogy here: you don’t teach a chef what “cooking” is. You hand them a specific recipe. Skills are those recipes.

Here’s how they work:

1. Create a SKILL.md file
2. Write out how to do one task perfectly
3. Upload it in Settings → Skills
4. Claude detects when it’s relevant and applies it automatically

This is where Claude goes from “helpful assistant” to “specialist who knows your exact workflow.” Want Claude to always format your weekly reports a certain way? Write a skill for it. Want it to follow a specific research methodology? Write a skill for that too. You define the process once, and Claude follows it every time the situation matches.

✦ Step 5: Claude Code, Your Junior Developer on Call

The final level. The person who shared this post describes it as having a junior developer available 24/7. You describe the vision. Claude builds it.

1. Download the Claude desktop app
2. Click the “Code” tab at the top
3. Create a folder on your computer
4. Connect GitHub

Even if you’re not a developer, this is worth paying attention to. Claude Code can build internal tools, automate data processing, create simple web apps, and handle tasks that would normally require hiring a freelancer. You don’t need to know the syntax. You need to know the outcome.

🎯 The Biggest Mistake Across All Five

This is the real takeaway from the post, and the one thing I think everyone should pin to their wall:

Don’t describe steps. Describe outcomes.

Instead of saying “Open file A, copy column B, paste it into file C,” say “Combine the revenue data into one summary.” Let Claude figure out the how. You focus on the what and the why.

This applies to every single mode listed above. Whether you’re chatting, setting up a project, using Cowork, writing skills, or building with Code, the pattern is the same. The more clearly you describe what you want to achieve, the better Claude performs. Micromanaging the process is the fastest way to get mediocre results.

🔑 Quick Recap: Your 5-Level Claude Setup

1. Chat: Stay in the same conversation. Let context build
2. Projects: Upload your brand docs and references once. Every future chat uses them
3. Cowork: Give folder access. Describe the deliverable. Review what comes back
4. Skills: Write specific task instructions in .md files. Claude applies them automatically
5. Code: Connect GitHub. Describe what you want built. Claude codes it

Each level builds on the previous one. You don’t need to use all five on day one, but knowing they exist means you can grow into them as your needs evolve.

This is one of the most practical breakdowns of Claude’s features I’ve come across. Check out the full LinkedIn post for the original formatting and additional context from the author.