Claude Code felt overhyped until I discovered the workflow that makes it genuinely powerful

A developer shares how their opinion of Claude Code shifted after building a structured workflow around it. Initial frustration came from using it like a chatbot with broad, unstructured prompts. The breakthrough came from three key practices: using Plan mode before writing any code, creating a CLAUDE.md file to give the tool persistent project context (tech stack, conventions, key directories), and breaking implementation into verifiable checkpoints. Each checkpoint involved Claude completing one functional slice, then stopping for manual verification before proceeding. This approach reduced repeated context-setting, kept changes scoped, and made debugging far easier.