Claire Vo · 3 min read · Gen AI Tools
How I turned Claude into a self-improving PM assistant | Daniel Blum (PM, Melio)
Read the original on lennysnewsletter.com →
Daniel Blum describes his year-long project to turn Claude into a self-improving PM assistant by building a Claude-and-Cowork-based productivity system that automates his Notion board, Slack, and email, and runs weekly self-improvement loops without prompting. He also built the Workstation onboarding plugin to deploy a personalized Claude setup to Melio employees in about 15 minutes. The episode covers his two rules for powerful AI, the weekly Notion prep, the morning brief for internal terms, and how the system scales to the team while acknowledging a remaining capability gap to run 100% of work through Claude.
Key Takeaways
- Build a personal AI infrastructure around Claude and Cowork to automate core PM workflows (Notion, Slack, email) and support ongoing self-improvement.
- Learn the two rules that make AI systems powerful, plus methods for contextualizing Claude with voice memos, links, and recurring updates.
- Implement weekly prep automation that repopulates a Notion board from scratch, reducing manual overhead and ensuring fresh context.
- Use a morning brief and an 'Improve' skill to teach Claude internal terms and filter AI tips, preventing jargon overload.
- Scale the system to the team with the Workstation onboarding flow, enabling ~15-minute Claude setup for new users, while recognizing a remaining capability gap.
Excerpt
Daniel Blum is a product manager at Melio, a B2B payments company, and one of the most systematic thinkers I’ve had on the show when it comes to personal AI infrastructure. He’s spent the past year building a Claude- and Cowork-based productivity system that manages his Notion board, processes his Slack and email, and runs self-improvement loops every week without needing to be prompted. Beyond his own workflow, Daniel built and scaled a “Workstation” onboarding plugin that gets any Melio employee up and running with a personalized Claude setup in about 15 minutes. Listen or watch on YouTube , Spotify…