What is a skill for Claude and what is it for?

A skill is a text file that says how a certain task should be done: the steps, the tone and the known pitfalls. Claude reads it by itself as soon as the task comes up, so the way of working only has to be explained once.

SCHILLER sets up skills together with clients: 30 minutes of getting to know each other for free, then 60 minutes on a real task.

AI skills

Does this sound familiar?

Three sentences from people who live this every day. You may recognise yourself in one of them.

I have to get out of word copy and paste into a browser, the section that I want to change and have it done through the browser. Then copy it go back to my Word document. Very inefficient and wasteful of my time.
Word user in Microsoft's own support forum
We take what should be a few bullet points, turn it into some overly wordy bullshit with AI, then the recipient uses AI to turn that wordy bullshit back into a few bullet points.
Comment on Hacker News
Often what it produces sounds very AI regardless of the tone you request.
On Copilot in email, Microsoft support forum

This is not user error. The tool does not know how you work, and you tell it from scratch every time.

What it costs

66 %

of developers

spend more time correcting AI results that are almost right than they save.

Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025, over 49,000 respondents

10 %

use AI daily

while 45 percent use it at all. Mostly for summarising and finding ideas, rarely for the actual work.

Gallup, August 2025, 23,068 employees

95 %

of AI projects

in companies deliver nothing measurable. Not because the models are bad, but because they do not adapt to how people actually work.

MIT NANDA, State of AI in Business 2025

What changes

You write down once how you want a certain task done: in which steps, in which tone, with which pitfalls. A text file, nothing more.

Your AI tool reads it by itself as soon as the task comes up. You no longer add anything.

If a result is not good once, you change the file. From then on it is better every time.

Today

The same notes, plus: as a protocol, please. Back comes a letter full of filler, an invented year and a decision that was none. So: shorter. No filler. Split it. Tomorrow the same again.

Without an instruction: three attempts, and the invented year is only caught on the third. Invented data, no sound.

Afterwards

You pick the Protokoll instruction and paste the notes. Structure, tone and the rule to invent nothing live in the file. Right the first time, and the mail straight after.

With the Protokoll instruction: one attempt, then the request for the mail. Invented data, no sound.

A piece of a real file

This is not a sample file. This is what the instruction says that I write my own meeting minutes with:

No added year either. If the note says "07.09.", you write "07.09." and ask about the year. A quietly added year is the kind of mistake nobody notices for years.

Rules like that do not come from a desk. They come from something having gone wrong once. That is exactly what we write down for your task, in your hour.

This is what the file looks like in the system: open it, add a rule, save. It applies from the next protocol on. Invented data, no sound.

Where do we start?

I work in an office

Texts, protocols, reports. Everything that ends up on your desk again anyway.

  • A protocol from bullet points, always in the same structure
  • Texts that sound like you instead of like a machine
  • Reports following your pattern, not the AI's
Pick a time: office

I build software

Almost right is the worst. That is exactly where the 66 percent goes.

  • Debugging that looks for the next case of the same kind before reporting success
  • Code review by your rules, not by the average of the internet
  • Setting up a workspace without a missing step
Pick a time: development

I lead a team

Everyone works differently with AI, and nobody knows how well. The result lands unfiltered on everybody else.

  • The same quality, no matter who on the team asks
  • The knowledge stays when someone leaves
  • New people follow the same rules from day one
Pick a time: leadership

Whichever you pick: the conversation is the same. You only choose what we talk about.

How it works

1

Step 1 of 3

Getting to know each other

30 min, free

You pick a time. In the conversation we find the one task where the effort pays off fastest.

2

Step 2 of 3

Mail with the offer

automatic

One hour after the conversation you get a mail with the offer for the hour together. Exactly one mail. If it does not fit, you do not have to do anything.

3

Step 3 of 3

The hour together

60 min, €290 plus VAT

We set up your instruction together, on your real task. At the end it works, and you know how to develop it further yourself. For companies and the self-employed.

What you have after that hour

  • An instruction that works for your task, on your machine
  • You know how to improve it yourself when something does not fit
  • You can tell which task is worth doing next

What you probably still want to know

Michael Schiller

Who does this with you

I work this way every day. Meeting minutes, blog articles, debugging, bookkeeping, invoice checking. The instruction the excerpt above comes from is the one I use for every protocol myself. What I show you is not something I made up, it is something I ground down over months.

30 free minutes

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