Set Up Claude Skills in 21 Mins (for Non-Technical People)

0:00This is the beginner's guide to actually setting up Claude skills. I'm going to make it super easy for you to understand how to use it, why it's important. I'll start by why it's important. You will be able to get way more out of Claude if you use skills. It's just going to get way more consistent, higher value stuff. So who doesn't want that? This episode is for you. And it's for the beginner. I'm not going to be using Claude code. I'm just going to be using a website. Or if you want to just have the Mac app, we're going to talk about how you can create a custom skill.

0:40So the first thing you're going to want to do is actually enable skills. So it doesn't enable it by default. So if you go to settings and then you click capabilities, if you scroll down, you actually could see that there's this skills preview feature. Repeat customizable instructions that Claude can follow in any chat. And you can actually add them over here. If you want to create a new skill, it gives you three options. It says create with Claude, build complex skills through conversation, write skill instructions, great for skills that are easy to describe, and then upload a skill. So this is if you actually have a zip already or a skill, you can just upload it already.

1:21But for the vast majority of people, you actually want to just hit, you know, let's create a skill together. and says it basically onboards you to this idea of how to create a skill so it says let's create a skill together using your skill creator skill first ask me what the skill should do it says i'll help you create a custom skill let me first review the skill creator documentation to guide us through this process so then it says perfect let's create a custom skill what functionality should this skill provide for example it could help with working with the specific formats or data following particular workflows for workflows for your work or projects, integrating with specific tools or APIs, applying domain specific knowledge or procedures or something else entirely.

2:08So what do I have in mind? So that's a good question. I'm going to say, hey there, I run a design agency called LCA. I'm constantly creating new apps and websites. I'd love a skill that reviewed my designs, actually reviewed my copywriting on my apps and websites and critiqued it to get the highest conversion rate possible. basically i want to ship apps that drive revenue etc and copy helps do that so basically what i'm trying to do is i want to have almost like a copywriter that specializes for you know apps and and websites and i want to see if i can create a skill that can go and do that um And it says, great idea.

3:18A conversion-focused copywriting review skill would be really valuable for your agency. Let me ask you a few questions to understand exactly how you do this. What kind of apps and websites are you typically building? So I'm going to say, I'm typically building mobile apps that have AI embedded in it

3:45or sass number two how would you provide the copy for review would you share urls html shots html files screenshots i'm going to say i would share screenshots or figma files or just paste text, whatever is easiest for you. So I literally treat it like I'm talking to an employee. What specific elements do you want critiqued? Headlines, CTAs, value propositions, product descriptions, hero sections, pricing pages, onboarding photos, all of the above, all of the above. And what does a helpful review look like to you? Do you want specific suggestions with before and after, a scored assessment, prioritize issues to fix or something else.

4:35Actually, that all sounds great. If you have a business that's doing at least$50 ,000 a month in revenue, I've got something interesting for you. It's called offline mode. It's a two-day event that me and my team are putting on at a 20 ,000 plus square foot mansion. Yes, this is what it looks like on January 23rd and January 24th in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I'll include a link in the description if you're interested in coming. But it's basically for people who have a business that's kind of cranking, but they really want to put it in rocket ship mode. They want to create a set of businesses that generate tons of money, tons of cash flow, tons of product market fit, tons of impact, but they're not just quite there yet.

5:21It's also about making your business AI first, how you can actually build not just one product, but multiple products. and you're going to leave with tactical answers to your questions. So if that's you and this sounds interesting, I'll see you there. So you answer it and it's actually a really good, like before you create, I mean, you should create your first skill, but I think that you should be asking Claude, like telling it what you do and asking it to tell you What are the 10 skills that you should be creating? So this would just be one of the skills. So you can see here it says, I have a clear picture now.

6:06I'm creating a conversion copywriting review skill for your AI and SaaS mobile apps. I'll build a skill that reviews all copy elements, headlines, CTAs, value props, provides scored assessments with specific before and after suggestions, prioritizes issues by impact on conversion, works with screenshots, Figma, files, and paste of text. Let me start by setting up the skill structure and it's gone and it's like it's building out, building this out. So why this is so important is, you know, yes, you could obviously have this within Claude in like one chat, but you lose the context. With the skill, you're getting the consistency and you're just getting better output ultimately because you're getting consistent output that you want.

6:55You're giving it the right amount of context and now knows about my business. A common question is, well, why wouldn't I just use a project within Claude? Well, you could use a project, but projects are context specific for a specific, like there's a beginning, middle, and an ending date to the project. So for example, maybe you're working on a Christmas campaign. But after that, the type of copy that you would do for a Christmas campaign might be different if you're doing something for Valentine's Day. So I think think of skills as you're building your team a little bit and you need a set of skills that are going to work regardless if you're working on a campaign or if you're working on just your day-to-day operations.

7:48so let's just check in on what's happening here um it says it's building you know it's building the skill it's starting it's starting by setting up the skill structure uh now let me build out the skill with conversion copywriting expertise i'll remove the example files we don't need and create reference materials great and now it let it says now let me uh let me write the main skill md with the review workflow so it's uh you know these are markdown files dot md um which is really simple and i saw i think someone from uh from anthropic actually you know someone asked them uh hey like why did you do markdown files like that's like literally the most basic files ever like why didn't you do something a little a little you know more complex and they just said that like it works right uh files work markdown files are super easy to understand if you're non-technical obviously you can really understand it so i'm happy that they that they you know pick such an easy way to actually uh to get involved so um you can see here now it's it's sort of at work you can you can actually go and see what it's doing so you know it's it's key principles, quality standards.

9:10I mean, this is really insane that this is possible.

9:18And it's gone, and I think we've got it. So it says, hey, I've created your LCA conversion copy review skill. Here's what it includes. Provide expert conversion copywriting reviews for your AI power mobile apps and SaaS. It works with screenshots, exactly what we said. so um it says what's inside okay so it's got the markdown file skill.md which is the step-by-step review workflow with scoring system and output template it's got a conversion framework.md so it's got the core frameworks like aida i think that's attention interest desire and action pas bab these are different frameworks that i'm happy exist in here and value proposition formulas Any good copywriter knows those things.

10:05Element guidelines on MD, so it's specific best practices for every copy element. Headlines, calls to action, pricings, etc. So how it works. When you ask me to review copy, I'll automatically load the conversion frameworks and guidelines, analyze each element with specific scoring, prioritize fixes by conversion impact, critical, high, medium, low, and provide before and after examples with psychological rationale. And then it says, to use this, upload this.skill file to Clode. Then just share any app website and ask for conversion review. So we're going to go ahead and do that. I'm actually going to go download it.

10:51Download it here. Copy. I click copy to your skills. so I believe we need to go back to the settings we're going to go ahead and click settings and then we go back to capabilities and here you can see the skills we have to add the skills and now is when we upload the skills so we're going to go ahead and drag and drop that from downloads so actually when I click copy it put it in there I wasn't sure about that so you actually you know if you click copy it automatically puts it there but i've gone and uploaded it there again and let's go and start a new chat and see if this works so i mean we're going to need something for it to review so i'm actually just going to go to like let's say cal ai which is a popular app for tracking your calories i'm just going to you know screenshot this actually maybe i'll screenshot yeah i'm going to screenshot these app store previews i'm going to go back so i'm gonna say hi please use the conversion review skill to look at these app store screenshots and provide better copy actually i'm also going to give it the website i'm literally just going to copy and paste i've also included the website copy which needs a copy review as well so i'm gonna go and see if this actually uses the skill hopefully it does so it says i'll review your app source screenshots and website copy for conversion optimization let me start by examining the conversion copywriting best practice for your app.

12:49So now you can see the agent really is going and working with the skill to get, to give the best possible outcome. Think about if we didn't have the skill. If we didn't have the skill and you were like, make it better, you know, make it sound fresh, make it sound clean, make a conversion rate optimized. You just wouldn't, you know, it wouldn't get the best output. So here, let's see what happens. Cal AI's current copy relies heavily on generic AI messaging without explaining concrete benefits or differentiated for competitors. The app store screenshots use vague headlines and don't communicate the value proposition.

13:27While the website copy buries compelling features under technical descriptions. Top priorities, rewrite headlines to focus on specific outcomes, clarify the unique AI capability, depth sensor for volume calculation, and lead with transformation rather than features. so it goes and tells you the critical issues it says the app store screenshots and let's actually go um and let's look at the app store screenshots so it says make easy calorie tracking easy with ai just snap a picture of your food then let us do the rest you can see you know it's it's it's taking a picture of pancakes and then it says track your progress as you go protein carbs and fats so it says the issues is too generic every calorie tracker claims to be easy there's no specific benefit or differentiation then let us do the rest is nothing meaningful so then it gives these alternatives option one track calories in three seconds i actually like the three seconds i think that's uh really good oh it did include by the way that the score it's pretty harsh three on 10, but yeah, track calories in three seconds, no manual logging, get exact portions using iPhone depth sensing.

14:45It's obviously better. Why it works. Specific time frame, three seconds. Emphasizes the elimination of friction points users hate. Highlights unique tech capability includes concrete multiplier. I've written copy for some of the largest SaaS businesses, apps on the planet. and I cannot agree more with this statement. Option two, so it gives you another option where it's transformation focused. Lost 17 pounds without counting a single calorie. Your camera calculates everything instantly. See calories, protein, carbs in real time. Join 5 million users hitting their goals daily. So leading with success, I think that could be really cool too.

15:27Let's see how it did on the website copy. So the current copy says meet Cal AI, track your calories with just a picture. It has a lot of issues with it. It says it weighs precious headline space, no emotional hook. The recommended alternative is the only calorie tracker that actually knows portion sizes. Your iPhone depth center measures exact food volume. So this, I mean, and then it gives you the high priority improvements. And you can just see this on screen. But the point here is it's done an incredible job here. It goes into medium priority refinements. It says what's working well here. It gives you product considerations and then a summary of what to do.

16:15Now, this is awesome. But I saw a tweet from my friend, Boring Marketer, this morning. and he said something that's really smart around how you can get the most out of Claude's skills. So he said, the trick to creating effective skills to make your AI think like an expert, not just to follow steps. So he has a 10-step process that I think is really great. So we've gone ahead and great. Now anyone listening to this can create a Claude skill. But how do you actually make the skill 2x better, 3x better, 4x better, 5x better? you do something like this and if people want i can go and do an episode with with james the boring marketer um where we can actually you know go deeper on this understand what skill what problem step one right so we we did that but could we have gone deeper uh you know with with with the llm probably explore see where cloud fails without guidance step three research go deep on the domain step four synthesize extract principles from research step five draft write initial skill step six self-critique review against quality criteria step seven iterate fix gaps get feedback improve step eight test use skill on a real scenario step nine finalize codify into an optimal structure what does this mean it says you know make cloud cloud think like an expert not follow steps.

17:50Produce output, not intermediate documents. Sounds like a practitioner, not documentation. Constrain ruthlessly. Every section earns its place. The point here is that once you've created your first skill or your second skill or your third skill, skills aren't something that you aren't, you know, making better over time. So as you see the output, let's say I didn't like the output of what I got, I can go ahead and edit the skill. Now that I have it, I can just go in and edit it and add to it and change it and iterate from there. So I want to keep this episode short because today was just about how you can create your first few skills.

18:34But once you have that, the second step is iterating on those skills so that it really, really, it's like an employee that knows you. You don't even need to tell it what to do. That's what you want to get to. It's just constantly delighting. And that's step two. You're iterating on the skills, getting the most out of them. And then step three is using it within a platform like Cloud Code. We've shown today around just using it on the web, on the Mac app, but you could use it within the terminal. That's really where you're going to get the most amount of control in it. Hope this was helpful. I do these practical AI tutorials because I think that we have a lot of ideas and this is the Startup Ideas podcast and it's about how you can get those ideas out of your head and actually create something that people love.

19:38and I think a big part of that is having you know using things like skills to your advantage so hope this was helpful please like comment and subscribe I literally read every single comment and respond to most so hope this was helpful happy holidays and have a creative day