What Are Skills?
WITHOUT SKILLS
- You re-explain your role, tone, context every session
- Claude has no memory and every prompt starts from zero
- Constant reformatting and re-prompting to get the right output
The vibe: briefing a new hire every single morning
WITH SKILLS
- Claude auto-loads exactly what it needs for each task
- Your tone, rules, workflow — with no briefing and no repetition
- Consistent output quality every time, regardless of who prompts
The vibe: a trained team member who already knows the job
Prompting = briefing a new hire every morning. Skills = a trained team member who already knows the job.
Anatomy of a Skill
ROLE
Who Claude is in this context. E.g., “You are a senior product manager specializing in B2B SaaS.”
RULES
What to do, what to avoid, tone and format. The guardrails that ensure consistent quality output.
TRIGGER
When the Skill auto-loads. The
description field tells Claude when to activate.FILE LOCATION
~/.claude/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md
---
name: linkedin-writer
description: "Write a LinkedIn post and load tone rules"
---
# Role
You are a LinkedIn content strategist...
# Rules
- Use conversational hooks, no clickbait...
# [Instructions continue]
name: linkedin-writer
description: "Write a LinkedIn post and load tone rules"
---
# Role
You are a LinkedIn content strategist...
# Rules
- Use conversational hooks, no clickbait...
# [Instructions continue]
How to Set Up a Skill
6 STEPS TO GET STARTED
1
Identify a recurring task
Anything you brief Claude on more than once is a Skill candidate.
2
Create the folder
~/.claude/skills/my-skill/3
Create SKILL.md
Add
name + description in YAML frontmatter.4
Write the three components
Role, Rules, Trigger — plain English, no code required.
5
Test it
Run your first task and refine what Claude gets wrong.
6
Build your library
One Skill per task. The more you build, the less you brief.
ANTHROPIC’S OFFICIAL TOOL
The Skill Creator
github.com/anthropics/skills
Create
Generate a new skill from a description
Eval
Test a skill’s effectiveness
Improve
Iterate and refine existing skills
Benchmark
Compare skill versions
- Also available as a Claude plugin
- Works with Pro, Max, Team & Enterprise
KEY RULE: The better the Skill is written, the less you intervene. Build it properly once.
Skills for Product Managers
DISCOVERY
Research & Validate
- User research & assumption mapping
- Experiment design & validation
- Competitive analysis
- Opportunity Solution Trees
brainstorm → identify → prioritize → experiment
Source: Teresa Torres framework
STRATEGY
Plan & Position
- PRD writing (8-section template)
- OKR setting & roadmap generation
- Vision & positioning docs
- SWOT, Porter’s Five Forces
vision → strategy → roadmap → OKRs
Source: Marty Cagan inspired
EXECUTION
Ship & Measure
- User stories (INVEST format)
- Sprint planning & stakeholder updates
- Release notes & changelogs
- Metrics dashboards (LTV, CAC, churn)
stories → sprint → ship → measure
Source: INVEST + agile best practices
100+ PM skills available in Pawel Huryn’s open-source PM Skills Marketplace — 1,300+ GitHub stars in 72 hours
Example Workflow — PRD in 5 Minutes
1
Skill auto-loads instant
Claude detects “write a PRD” and loads your prd-writer Skill — 8-section template, INVEST user stories, success metrics framework.
2
One-line brief 10 sec
“Write a PRD for a smart notification system that reduces alert fatigue by 60%.”
3
Claude builds the full PRD 90 sec
Problem statement, user personas, requirements, user stories, success metrics, risks, timeline — all structured to your team’s format.
4
You refine and align 3 min
Adjust priorities, add context from stakeholder conversations, sharpen the success criteria. Your judgment, Claude’s structure.
5
Share with engineering < 5 min total
A complete, well-structured PRD in under 5 minutes. Previously: 4–6 hours of writing and formatting.
The Numbers
80%
Task time reduction
(Anthropic research)
(Anthropic research)
60-70%
Token efficiency gains
with Skills architecture
with Skills architecture
100+
PM skills in Huryn
marketplace
marketplace
<500
Lines per SKILL.md
(best practice)
(best practice)
“
One Claude feature that’s completely transformed the way I use Claude on a daily basis is Skills.
— XDA Developers
