Most people use 10% of Claude. Here’s the rest

I keep running into the same thing when I talk to people about Claude. They open a new chat, type a question, grab the answer, then close the tab. That’s it. No Projects, no Skills, no memory, no connectors. Just a slightly smarter search bar than they had two years ago, and then they wonder why their results never really change.

That’s exactly the frustration this LinkedIn creator called out in a post I read this week, and I was nodding the whole way through. The original poster argues that most people are leaving something like 90% of Claude on the table, and honestly, I think that number is fair.

What made the post stand out is where the author points the finger. The tips that actually move the needle aren’t about writing prettier prompts. They’re about the infrastructure you build around Claude. The expert says their team went deep on the platform, used it to run workflows, store context, and connect tools, and ended up shipping more than their headcount suggested they should.

The gap between basic use and proper use was bigger than most people expect. According to the original poster, it took months to fully map.

So let me break down the sample of tips the creator shared. I’ve kept each one practical, with a quick note on why it matters.

The tips worth stealing

1. Use Projects as a memory bank. Store your brand voice, tone guides, and reference files inside a Project so Claude never loses context between sessions. You stop re-explaining who you are every single time.
2. Encode workflows with Skills. The author suggests building repeatable workflows once, then running them on demand. No starting from scratch, no re-teaching the same steps over and over.
3. Connect your real data with MCP. Hook Claude up to Google Drive, Gmail, GitHub, Asana, and dozens of other tools. Now it can actually read and act on your live data instead of guessing from what you paste in.
4. Let Claude Code do the heavy lifting. The expert points out it handles multi-file edits, CI pipelines, and complex debugging. For most coding tasks, Sonnet 4.6 is the right default.
5. Turn on Prompt Caching for the API. This one cuts repeated input costs by up to 90%. If you’re making volume API calls, the original poster says this matters more than any prompt tweak, and I agree.
6. Trust Adaptive Reasoning (4.6+). Claude adjusts its thinking depth per task automatically. That stops you from burning expensive Opus tokens on simple follow-up questions.
7. Batch the non-urgent jobs. The Batch API gives you 50% discounted processing with a 12 to 24 hour turnaround. Perfect for work that doesn’t need to finish this second.
8. Mix Standard and Premium Team seats. Your non-technical staff don’t need to pay the same rate as your developers. Small billing decision, real savings over a year.
9. Switch on memory from chat history. Flip the setting and Claude builds personalized context across every conversation automatically. Less setup, more relevance.
10. Reuse documents with the Files API. Upload a document once and pull it into multiple API calls. No re-uploading the same files on every request.
11. Reach for Extended Thinking on hard problems. When you want to review Claude’s reasoning before you act on the answer, this is the setting. Great for high-stakes decisions where you can’t just trust the output blind.

Why this hit me

The part I keep coming back to is how simple most of these are. None of them require you to be a prompt wizard. They’re settings, connections, and small habits. The person who shared it framed it perfectly: the difference between a basic chatbot experience and a genuine workflow engine comes down to plumbing, not clever wording.

I think this lands right in the middle of where the whole industry is heading. The conversation has moved past “what’s the perfect prompt” and into “how do I wire this into my actual stack.” Projects, Skills, and MCP connectors are the pieces that turn Claude from a place you visit into a system that runs alongside your work.

Here’s how I’d actually apply it. Pick one project you run often, say weekly content or a recurring report. Load a Project with your reference files, set up a Skill for the steps you repeat, and connect the one tool where your data already lives. That’s three tips, one afternoon, and you’ve probably reclaimed hours of copy-pasting.

If you’re doing anything at volume through the API, start with Prompt Caching and the Batch API. Those two alone can cut your bill in a way no rewording ever will.

The takeaway

The savvy professional behind this post nailed the core idea: better results don’t come from better prompts, they come from the structure you build around the tool. Most of us are still treating a powerful platform like a search box, and the fix is mostly free.

Worth forwarding to someone on your team who’s still opening a fresh chat every time and starting from zero. Check out the full LinkedIn post for the creator’s complete breakdown, and ask yourself the same question they asked: which of these is actually new to you?