How to Use Claude's Projects Feature for Ongoing Strategic Work

A Claude Project is a persistent workspace within Claude.ai where you can store documents, set a project-level system prompt (instructions that apply to every conversation in the project), and access all your conversations within that project.

When you upload documents to a Project, they are available in every conversation in that project without re-uploading. When you set a system prompt for the Project, every conversation benefits from that context. When you have multiple conversations within a Project, you can refer back to previous conversations.

For an executive doing sustained work on a topic, this means: upload the relevant documents once (the strategy, the financial model, the key contracts, the board papers), set context once ('you are assisting the CEO of [company] with strategic analysis'), and then ask questions across sessions without re-establishing context each time.

An acquisition process is an ideal use case for Claude Projects. Create a project called '[Target Company] Acquisition' and upload the documents as they become available: the information memorandum, the management accounts, the due diligence reports, the draft heads of terms, the legal review.

Set a system prompt: 'You are assisting the CEO of [Acquirer] with their acquisition of [Target]. The acquirer's strategic rationale is [brief summary]. Flag any findings that contradict this rationale or create unexpected risk.'

As the process progresses, you can ask questions that draw on the full document set: 'Does anything in the due diligence reports materially change the strategic rationale we set out?' or 'How have the risks identified in the initial information memorandum been addressed in the due diligence?' or 'Draft an executive summary of where we stand at the end of the due diligence process.'

The project maintains the full document context, so you are not re-uploading and re-explaining at each stage. The accumulated context across multiple sessions builds into a richer analytical environment than any single conversation could provide.

For executives who prepare for recurring board meetings, a Board Pack Project provides a standing reference environment.

Upload the governance framework, the strategic plan, the most recent management accounts, and key committee terms of reference as permanent reference documents. Each quarter, add the current board papers before the meeting.

Useful ongoing queries: 'Does the strategy in the current board papers remain consistent with the three-year strategic plan?' and 'What has changed between the Q2 and Q3 management accounts that the board should focus on?' and 'Draft the questions I should ask about the risk report based on the previous risk report and the changes in this one.'

The persistent context means the AI understands the organisation's history, strategy, and governance context in a way that a fresh conversation cannot.

Documents uploaded to Claude Projects are stored in Anthropic's infrastructure. Before uploading sensitive business documents, confirm that your organisation's AI governance policy permits this use case and that you understand Anthropic's data handling terms.

Anthropics enterprise API terms specify that documents are not used for model training, but if you are using Claude.ai (the consumer interface), review the current terms of service for the specific data handling applicable to your subscription tier.

For the most sensitive documents (M&A, board-level strategic plans, personal data, market-sensitive information), verify that the appropriate enterprise data protection terms apply before uploading. The convenience of Projects is real; the governance question is whether the data classification of the documents you want to upload is compatible with the data handling terms of the service you are using.