The Claude Code Tutorial for AI PMs: Why You Need to Use It + How

109 snips

Oct 4, 2025

In this engaging discussion, Carl Vellotti, a seasoned product manager and creator of a popular product-management Instagram account, explores the transformative power of Claude Code. He emphasizes how non-technical PMs can leverage it for file-driven workflows and context engineering. With tips on building a knowledge base and using Claude for research, project planning, and generating technical PRDs, Carl also shares insights on crafting reusable commands and defining custom agents. His success in automating tasks via AI adds a dynamic layer to product management.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

ADVICE

Save Your Best Prompts As Commands

Save repeat prompts as slash commands like /meeting-notes, /competitive-research so you can reuse them instantly.
Trigger commands instead of hunting bookmarks to keep workflows fast and consistent.

ADVICE

Always Plan Before You Execute

Use Plan Mode (Shift+Tab) so Claude drafts a checklist and cannot edit files until you approve it.
Review and adjust the plan to catch mistakes before execution and avoid costly AI errors.

ADVICE

Eval Prompts Across Models Automatically

Ask Claude to generate multiple prompts and run them across several LLMs, then save outputs into structured files for comparison.
Use those comparisons to pick the best prompt-model combo without manual copy-paste.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Today’s Episode

Claude Code hit $500 million ARR in four months.

Two product managers. Zero marketing dollars. Just pure viral growth.

While some PMs are still copying and pasting into ChatGPT, others are orchestrating multiple AI agents that work in parallel, automatically reading files, researching competitors, and building prototypes.

Carl Vellotti runs the world’s largest PM Instagram account (55K followers) and has mastered Claude Code better than almost anyone. He’s built his own meme generation system, automated his content workflow, and uses Claude Code for everything from research to prototyping.

Today’s tutorial takes you from beginner to Claude Code hero.

----

Check out the conversation on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.

Brought to you by:

* Linear: Plan and build products like the best

----

Key Takeaways

1/ Stop Working in Chat Windows

Traditional chat requires manually dragging files one at a time. Claude Code lives in your terminal and automatically reads entire folder structures. The interface was the bottleneck all along.

2/ Build Your Knowledge Base First

Create four folders: business-info.md for product context, writing-styles/ for different voices, examples/ for past PRDs, meeting-transcripts/ for automatic uploads. One prompt pulls from everything.

3/ Use the CLAUDE File for Memory

Add rules once, they persist forever. "Never commit without asking." "Always use technical writing." Unlike prompts that get lost in context windows, this stays active every session.

4/ Save Your Best Prompts as Commands

Create /meeting-notes, /competitive-research, /prd-review. Save once, reuse forever. No more hunting through old Twitter bookmarks for that perfect prompt.

5/ Let Claude Plan Before Executing

Press Shift+Tab for Plan Mode. Claude creates full execution plan without touching files. You review, catch mistakes, then approve. This one habit prevents 80% of AI disasters.

6/ Parallelize Everything You Can

Need to analyze 3 customer interviews? Claude spins up 3 UXR agents working simultaneously. Week of manual work becomes 1 hour with parallel agents.

7/ Build Custom Agent Personalities

Designer agent focuses on UX. Engineer agent checks technical constraints. Executive agent evaluates business impact. All three review your PRD simultaneously with specialized perspectives.

8/ Use the $37/Month Combo

Claude Pro ($17) handles research and writing perfectly. Add Cursor ($20) for heavy coding. You get best models for $37 instead of $200/month Claude Max.

9/ Only See Token Usage Here

Claude Code shows real-time token consumption and cost. Finally understand what API pricing actually means. No other interface gives you this visibility.

10/ Start Simple Then Scale

Begin with one research task using file analysis. Add a custom command. Try parallel agents once. You'll never go back to chat interfaces.

----

Where to Find Carl Vellotti

* Linkedin

* X (Twitter)

* Instagram

----