If you’ve been using Claude 4 (Opus or Sonnet) and wondering how to get more “wow” and less “meh,” here’s your insider tip: It’s not just the model, it’s how you talk to it.

The latest Claude models are sharper, faster, and more instruction-aware than their predecessors. But that also means they expect you to be more intentional too. Claude 4 thrives on clarity. So if your prompts have been vague or overly broad, now’s the time to level up.

Here’s what’s working for top teams:

1. Be clear and direct: Don’t assume the model will “figure it out.” If you want structured paragraphs, ask for that. If you want a visually interactive UI with hover states, spell it out.
2. Give context: Tell Claude why the task matters. Adding intent or purpose makes the output more aligned with your actual goals.
3. Use examples wisely: Claude pays close attention to examples you provide. Make sure they reflect the tone, structure, and detail you want.
4. Control the format: Whether you use XML tags or mimic the tone in your prompt, Claude will mirror it. Style guides aren't just for humans anymore.
5. Think together: Claude now supports guided or interleaved thinking. You can literally tell it to pause, reflect, and plan next steps and it will.

If you're building with tools or doing complex code generation, Claude 4 is even better when you encourage parallel thinking and efficiency. And yes, if you don’t want it creating too many scratch files? Just say so. It listens.

Claude 4 isn’t just a better model. It’s a more cooperative one, if you know how to lead the conversation. And in a world where prompting is a skillset, the best communicators will get the best results.

Start prompting like a pro.

To get full guild on how to efficiently prompt Claude 4 check