Tag: Claude Code

How I Used Claude Code to Run a Full Content Audit in Hours—and Uncovered Big SEO Wins

Can an AI agent actually run a credible content audit end to end? I put that to the test. In my role leading product at a high-growth SaaS and as a hands-on content strategist, I’m constantly balancing depth with reach. During a recent office-hours discussion, someone asked me to zoom out and explain when to use Claude Code. That prompt inspired me to launch a running series—Conversations with Claude—showing exactly how I apply it to real product management and SEO problems.

I’m a heavy user and share what works for me. I receive no compensation from Anthropic for this series; if that ever changes, I’ll disclose it. With that out of the way, let’s dive into how I had Claude conduct a full content audit—and why the results exceeded my expectations.

For the first installment, I chose a fairly complex use case: a comprehensive content audit of my site. I expected this to be a slog. Instead, it was refreshingly fast and rigorous once I set Claude up with the right scaffolding.

I kicked off with a simple directive: start by asking clarifying questions, proceed step by step, and capture notes in a shared task file. I also provided deep context—specifically, the CDH Book (15 chapters + intro) and my entire blog archive in markdown—so the model could reason with my actual corpus rather than guessing from sparse prompts.

Claude began with smart clarifying questions that framed the analysis well. Scope of keywords: Should it focus strictly on concepts unique to or heavily associated with my work like "opportunity solution tree" and "continuous discovery," or also include broader product management terms such as "product outcomes," "assumption testing," and "customer interviewing"? Keyword geography: Start with US-only or include UK/global? Blog coverage assessment: What counts as "well covered"—dedicated deep dives or credible coverage within broader posts? Output format: Add findings to the task file or create a separate deliverable?

Peek inside a Notion-style page that turns content strategy into action: a content-audit task with due date and tags, plus clear steps for keyword research, blog gap analysis, and SEO improvements.

I replied: 1. both 2. us only is a good place to start 3. evaluate this based on how well we rank for the keyword, if we rank reasonably well, you might suggest content improvements to rank better, if we don't rank at all, then you might suggest a whole new article 4. add to the task file

From there, Claude read the CDH Book, extracted roughly 100 keywords, ran them through Keywords Everywhere in two batches of 50 to capture search volume, and pulled current domain rankings and traffic metrics. Within minutes, I had a high-signal view of what’s working, where we’re invisible, and how to prioritize fixes.

The good news came first: we own our branded terms—#1 for "product discovery," "opportunity solution tree," "continuous discovery," and "product trio." That brand equity is doing real work for us.

The biggest gaps were in broad topics the CDH Book covers but where there’s no targeted content. "Outcomes vs outputs" (1,300/mo) — Arguably THE central thesis of CDH, and no ranking. This is the single biggest gap. "Product roadmap" (4,400/mo) — I have a strong anti-roadmap POV but no content targeting this. "Product strategy" (1,900/mo) — Ch 7 argues strategy = opportunity selection. Strong differentiator, no ranking. "Story mapping" (5,400/mo) — I use story maps uniquely (for surfacing assumptions). Huge volume. "Stakeholder management" (2,900/mo) — Ch 13 is entirely about this. No ranking. "Pre-mortem" (4,400/mo) — I cover this as a product discovery technique. No ranking.

Inside a dark-themed writing workspace, a long-form chapter is open while a tidy folder tree catalogs pages and chapters. The scene invites readers to think like auditors—inventory content, track structure, and surface gaps with AI assistance.

The trojan horse opportunity: High-volume generic terms like story mapping, pre-mortem, and usability testing could bring in readers who don't know about CDH yet. Write about these broadly-searched topics with my specific product-discovery angle.

In just a few minutes, Claude generated an analysis of what keywords we ranked for and at what position, a ranked set of high-, medium-, and lower-volume (but strategic) keywords where we didn’t rank yet had relevant content, concrete net-new topics to close the gaps, and a list of existing articles to update to lift their SERP positions. It worked far better than I expected.

Here’s how I set it up so the model could deliver: I didn’t simply ask Claude.ai to "audit my site" and hope for the best. I supplied rich, relevant context (my book and all blog posts as markdown) so it could anchor on my language, frameworks, and mental models. I paired that with live data via APIs like Keywords Everywhere to ground recommendations in actual search volume and competitive rankings. With the right inputs, Claude Code behaved like a capable research analyst and an SEO strategist—able to reason, prioritize, and suggest high-leverage actions.

Next, I went deeper and used the findings to draft a long-form article that addresses the biggest gap—"Outcomes vs outputs"—and ties it directly to product roadmapping and sprint planning. I wove in continuous discovery practices, opportunity solution tree techniques, and product trios collaboration to make it actionable for empowered product teams. I’ll share the end-to-end workflow—including files, prompts, and the editorial QA checklist—in a follow-up.

If you’re new to Claude Code and want a practical starting point, replicate the setup above: assemble your canonical sources in markdown, define a clear evaluation rubric, and ground keyword research with reliable volume data. If you want my exact task file, clarifying-question template, and step-by-step audit rubric, tell me which content gap you’d prioritize first and why—I’ll tailor the walkthrough to the highest-interest topic.

Inspired by this post on Product Talk.

March 11, 2026
From Chaos to Clarity with Claude Code: My Hands-On Playbook for Product Leaders

I’ve been pushing hard to operationalize AI for real product work, and this episode zeroes in on the moment Claude Code stops feeling like a demo and starts behaving like a dependable teammate. If you’ve ever wondered how to go from clever prompts in the browser to durable, repeatable workflows on your machine, this walkthrough is for you.

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts.

My first honest reaction to installing and configuring the desktop agent was the all-too-relatable “this tool thinks everything is a code repo” reality. That framing helped me reset expectations fast: instead of treating it like a magical universal assistant, I began designing guardrails, context, and repeatable routines—exactly how I’d onboard a new team member.

The shift from Claude-in-the-browser to Claude Code on my machine was the unlock. Locally, it can finally work with my files, folders, and workflows. That meant I could ground it in real artifacts—project docs, meeting notes, product specs, and historical decisions—so responses weren’t just plausible; they were contextual and verifiable.

On setup, I now treat /init and Claude MD files as my product requirements. I define roles, boundaries, and canonical sources up front, then run in a deliberate “walled garden.” The “treat it like an intern” model works beautifully: scope access intentionally, expand privileges as trust grows, and keep a tight audit trail of what it can touch and why.

Surprisingly, task management became my ideal on-ramp. It’s easy to validate, the feedback loops are tight, and the ROI is immediate. I export calendar windows rather than granting full calendar access, then let the agent map priorities into Trello, reconcile time blocks, and surface trade-offs. Fast wins build confidence—mine and the agent’s.

Model switching matters more than I expected. When speed is king and “good enough” will do, Haiku keeps the loop snappy. When stakes are higher—complex synthesis, nuanced product strategy, or gnarly ambiguity—I step up to Claude Opus 4.5. Being intentional about when to optimize for latency versus depth is a quiet superpower.

Web tasks can still spiral. When that happens, I pause its autonomy, toggle to fewer steps, and ask, “What are you doing?” Paired with Claude’s Web fetch tool, this makes the agent explain its chain-of-thought planning without exposing hidden reasoning, so I can spot brittle assumptions, prune distractions, and re-ground the task.

Content retrieval has become a killer workflow. I point the agent at my archives—blog posts, book drafts, transcripts, notes—and ask, “Where have I talked about this before?” It assembles a map of prior art, connects themes I’d forgotten, and prevents me from reinventing work. Over time, this evolves into a Zettelkasten-style research system that upgrades rigor and accelerates synthesis.

I’ve also turned Claude Code into a publishing engine. From a single transcript, it drafts titles, descriptions, show notes, and chapters, then routes artifacts to Ghost for formatting. Before anything ships, I run fact-checking workflows that validate claims against transcripts and research sources. The output improves, but more importantly, the scaffolding makes quality repeatable.

Reusable workflows compound. I rely on slash commands to trigger common jobs, break down larger efforts with sub-agents, and wire in hooks and plugins where external systems are needed. This is agentic AI at its most practical: fewer hero prompts, more reliable processes.

Audience analytics and content prioritization are helpful with caveats. I let the agent cluster themes and flag gaps, then I pressure-test its suggestions against first-party data and strategic goals. As with any model-driven insight, triangulation beats blind faith.

Two metaphors guide my day-to-day. First, Claude Code is like a dog—sometimes it returns with the stick, sometimes it gets lost in the woods. Second, the “intern” framing keeps me honest: don’t hand it the whole company on day one. With that mindset, my output jumped—more volume without sacrificing quality—because the workflow scaffolding got better.

In this episode, I cover what Claude Code is and why it’s useful even if you’re not an engineer, the real difference between the browser experience and running locally, how to shape behavior with /init and Claude MD files, why task management is the perfect proving ground, when to export calendar windows versus connecting directly, and when model-switching makes sense—Haiku for speed, Opus for depth.

I also dig into debugging web tasks by asking “What are you doing?”, content retrieval workflows across personal archives, building reusable slash-command systems with sub-agents, hooks, and plugins, practical publishing stacks from transcripts, fact-checking against transcripts and research sources, and using analytics to prioritize content—with a healthy respect for uncertainty.

If you’ve been trying to make Claude Code feel less like “throwing a stick into the woods,” this is the candid, tactical tour I wish I’d had on day one. Drop your questions and experiments below—I’m eager to compare notes and refine the playbook together.

Inspired by this post on Product Talk.

February 10, 2026
Build Your Personal Operating System with Claude Code: A Playbook for Focus, Speed, Clarity

This is the year to build your personal operating system. For me, that line isn’t a slogan; it’s a commitment to eliminate context switching, compress decision cycles, and turn fragmented information into a reliable source of truth. As a product leader, I needed a system that blends judgment, data, and automation—so I built mine around Claude Code.

When I say “personal operating system,” I mean an integrated set of AI workflows, rituals, and tools that capture knowledge, structure decisions, and automate execution. It’s where product discovery meets delivery: a place to synthesize signals, prioritize with clarity, and move from insight to action without friction. The outcome is fewer ad hoc decisions, more deliberate strategy, and a calmer, more focused day.

Claude Code sits at the center because it helps me translate intent into working software and repeatable processes. I use it to scaffold small utilities, write adapters for APIs, and evolve prompts into robust patterns. It accelerates everything from research synthesis and PRD drafting to backlog grooming and stakeholder updates—while keeping me in the loop for final judgment.

Under the hood, I run a retrieval-first pipeline that connects notes, docs, tickets, research transcripts, and roadmaps into a searchable, living memory. With careful context window management, I feed only the most relevant snippets into Claude Code, preserving accuracy and speed. The result: richer answers, fewer hallucinations, and an assistant that “remembers” what matters without drowning in noise.

My daily loop is simple: capture, synthesize, decide, and act. I capture customer signals and meeting notes into a personal knowledge management vault; synthesize patterns with prompt engineering that emphasizes evidence; decide using outcomes vs output OKRs; and act by generating drafts, creating tasks, and updating artifacts. Claude Code helps me wire this end-to-end, so the system works even on my busiest days.

If you’re implementing this from scratch, start small. Pick one high-friction workflow—say, product feedback triage—and build a narrow agentic AI flow to classify, summarize, and route items. Use eval-driven development to test prompts against known edge cases. Add guardrails and privacy-by-design practices from day one, then expand to neighboring workflows once the first loop is reliable.

Governance matters. I treat AI risk management, data governance, and security as first-class citizens: limited data scopes, clear audit trails, human-in-the-loop approvals, and rollback plans. Feature flags control changes; observability tracks drift and quality; and a simple playbook documents how we deploy, monitor, and improve the system.

Measure what this personal operating system earns you. Track decision latency, cycle time from signal to action, meeting-to-output ratios, and the signal-to-noise ratio of inputs. When the system is working, you’ll feel it: fewer meetings, more momentum, and sharper product strategy supported by trustworthy AI workflows.

The goal isn’t to automate judgment—it’s to protect it. By letting Claude Code handle the glue work and information wrangling, I preserve energy for high-leverage thinking: positioning, sequencing, and trade-offs. Build your personal operating system now, and make this the year your product practice runs with clarity and composure.

Inspired by this post on Pendo – Best Practices.

February 3, 2026
Build vs. Buy in an AI-First World: My Framework to De-Risk Decisions and Own Your Data

Build vs. buy is a decision that never truly goes away, and with AI reshaping the economics of software, I’m revisiting this question more frequently—and with more nuance—than ever. The temptation to “just build it” is real when prototypes are cheaper, shipping feels faster, and small tools can rival big platforms. But the real decision has never been about code; it’s about value, data, and long-term responsibility.

Across product orgs at every stage, I see the same pattern: AI makes building feel easier—but it doesn’t eliminate the tradeoffs. The hard part is separating what differentiates your product from what simply supports it. That’s why I start by asking whether the capability is truly core to my value stream, and then I force myself to reason about ownership and maintenance, not just velocity.

My rule of thumb remains simple: If something isn’t core to your value stream, don’t build it. And even when it is core, vendors may still be better positioned—especially for payments, invoicing, and infrastructure. Those domains carry deep operational complexity, continuous compliance, and reliability requirements that are easy to underestimate and painful to own.

Here’s how this plays out for me. I would never build my own blogging platform. I moved from WordPress to Ghost, because publishing isn’t where I differentiate, and the long tail of upgrades, security, and performance is a drag on focus. The platform does the job, my audience gets a better experience, and my team avoids owning commodity maintenance work.

On the other hand, I did build my own task management system—despite the abundance of excellent tools like Trello, Evernote, and OmniFocus. For me, tasks, notes, and workflows are deeply personal and idiosyncratic. I wanted my system to reflect how I think, plan, and communicate, with tight integration to my daily product rituals. In this case, the underlying data became the real product—and owning and controlling that data changed the equation.

That’s the heart of the decision: When the underlying data becomes the real product, ownership matters. Task management, notes, and workflows evolve into a personalized operating system. The moment your data model represents your unique value—and your future differentiation—build vs. buy is no longer a tooling choice; it’s a strategy choice.

AI is pushing this even further. Cheaper prototyping and “vibe coding” lower the cost of building. Tools like Claude Code and platforms from OpenAI make it viable to ship smaller, targeted tools that would have been uneconomical a few years ago. That expands the frontier of what teams can build without committing to a monolithic platform—and it puts pressure on vendors to improve data portability.

Which brings me to vendor lock-in. Exports aren’t always enough. When I evaluate CRMs or course platforms, I look for more than CSV dumps. I want robust, well-documented APIs, webhook coverage, import/export parity, schema transparency, and a clear migration path. I’ve seen teams drown in brittle integrations with Salesforce or HubSpot, struggle to unwind course data from Teachable, or get stuck in signature workflows around DocuSign without a clean escape hatch. Portability is table stakes now.

I treat build vs. buy as a discovery problem. Options are assumptions to test. On the build side, I run feasibility spikes: proof-of-concept integrations, latency checks, cost-to-serve models, and a sober read on maintenance. On the buy side, I trial vendors, not their marketing. I replicate a real workflow, test the edges, validate data portability, and simulate failure modes like vendor downtime or schema changes.

A word of caution on complexity: “we can build anything” is not the same as “we should build this.” Long-lived products accumulate hidden complexity over time—security, privacy, performance, observability, SRE runbooks, QA automation, documentation, and compliance. Be honest about engineering capabilities and maintenance costs, especially when uptime and regulatory exposure are in play.

My practical checklist looks like this: Is this core to our differentiation? Do we need to own the data model? How strong is data portability (APIs, webhooks, mapping, re-import)? What’s the true total cost of ownership over three years (people, ops, security, compliance)? Are there regulatory or reliability constraints better handled by a vendor? What’s the opportunity cost of not building something more strategic? And if we buy, what’s our exit plan?

Ultimately, build vs. buy isn’t just about speed or cost—it’s about core value, data ownership, and long-term responsibility. AI lowers the barrier to building, but it doesn’t erase complexity. Treat build vs. buy decisions like any other discovery effort: test assumptions, prototype, and validate before committing. Ask not just can we build it, but should we own it?

If you’re wrestling with vendor lock-in, fielding pressure to “just build it,” or rethinking your stack in an AI-first world, this lens will help you ask better questions before you commit. And if you’re exploring targeted builds alongside platforms like Stripe, Dropbox, Obsidian, or Ghost, I’d love to hear what’s working for you and where portability remains a hurdle.

Inspired by this post on Product Talk.

January 27, 2026
New Year, New Product Habits: AI Workflows, Coaching Culture, and Community in 2026

Happy New Year! I’m kicking off 2026 with a behind-the-scenes look at what’s changing in my product practice, the experiments I’m running with my teams at HighLevel, and the trends I’m most energized by—especially around continuous discovery, AI workflows, and building stronger coaching cultures.

If you want to listen to the conversation that sparked many of these reflections, you can find it here: Spotify | Apple Podcasts.

Why Teresa sunset the live deep-dive cohorts—and how on-demand and the new Discovery Habits Toolbox better support real behavior change. This pivot resonated with my own experience: some skills, especially discovery habits, only stick when they’re reinforced in the flow of real product work, not just in a time-boxed cohort. In my org, we’re leaning into on-demand learning paired with manager coaching to drive durable behavior change.

What leaders actually need to coach interviewing, assumption testing, and core discovery habits inside their orgs. I’ve found that empowered product teams thrive when leaders have lightweight coaching tools, practical prompts, and clear expectations for product trios. This is less about one-off training and more about building communities of practice where deliberate practice and feedback loops become routine.

Why training is shifting toward ongoing, leader-supported learning (and how AI will accelerate the shift). AI Strategy isn’t just about tools—it’s about learning systems. For LLMs for product managers to create leverage, we need eval-driven development, privacy-by-design, and clear guardrails. I’m building AI workflows that enable managers to review interviews, spot anti-patterns, and nudge teams toward better decisions—without replacing critical thinking.

Teresa’s move into paid subscriptions and why AI content doesn’t fit the classic “design once, run for years” course model. I see the same reality in my content roadmap: the half-life of AI guidance is short. That pushes us toward subscription models, tighter feedback loops, and a more adaptive go-to-market strategy for education products.

A sneak peek into the AI tools Teresa is building for discovery work—from interview coaching to near-ready interview snapshot generation. I’m particularly excited by tooling that scaffolds better interviews, sharpens assumption testing, and speeds up synthesis without skipping the human judgment step. These capabilities map directly to where I want my teams investing time: spending less energy on admin and more on learning from customers.

Petra’s plans for the year: community building with Product at Heart, a new product leadership email course, her Product Leadership Wheel, and workshops launching in Cairo. As someone who believes in conferences as high-quality “energy wells,” I’m inspired by how these programs create momentum for leaders who are upgrading their coaching muscles.

The role of conferences and retreats in staying grounded, inspired, and connected. I treat these gatherings as strategic resets—spaces to test ideas, confront blind spots, and deepen my network for future collaboration. The best outcomes often come from serendipitous hallway conversations and hands-on sessions where you can pressure test frameworks with peers.

How Teresa is staying on top of academic research (and why “synthetic users” aren’t ready for prime time). I agree: while synthetic data can be useful for scaffolding, it’s not a substitute for direct customer contact. Combine academic rigor with real-world interviewing and strong data governance—especially when operating under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The shared challenge of evaluating vendors and conference speakers making questionable AI claims. My heuristic: ask for clear problem statements, reproducible evaluations, grounded benchmarks, and a path to safe deployment. If a pitch can’t show measurable uplift or ignores compliance, it’s not ready for empowered product teams.

Key takeaways I’m carrying into 2026: delivery models matter; leaders need coaching tools, not just training; AI is reshaping how we teach and learn; experimentation is the theme of 2026; and community still energizes. That’s the blueprint I’m using to strengthen continuous discovery, refine our AI workflows, and sustain high standards in product management leadership.

What about you? How are you integrating AI workflows into your discovery practice, and what coaching tools are helping your managers reinforce the right habits? Share your approach—I’d love to learn what’s working in your context.

Resources & Links:

Follow Teresa Torres: https://ProductTalk.org

Follow Petra Wille: https://Petra-Wille.com

Teresa’s website: Product Talk

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Product Talk Academy

Deliberate Practice – ATP episode where Teresa talked about the ending live cohorts for Deep Dive classes

Teresa’s Discovery Habits Toolbox program

Petra’s A 52-Week Transformation Journey

Teresa’s Product Talk subscriptions (AI workflows + discovery content)

Claude Code

The Interview Coach by Teresa

Product at Heart Conference (Hamburg)

Petra’s Coaching Packages

Petra’s Ways We Can Work Together

Petra’s Product Leadership Wheel (PLwheel)

Petra’s Product Manager (PMwheel)

Prdkt+ MENA Product Summit 2026

World Beautiful Business Forum by House of Beautiful Business

Melissa Suzuno

Vistaly (Teresa’s integration partner for some upcoming AI tools)

Teresa’s Just Now Possible podcast

Inspired by this post on Product Talk.

January 13, 2026
Turn Claude Code Into a Trusted Teammate: My 3-Layer Memory System You Can Copy

"Can you critique the landing page for my new Story-Based Customer Interviews course?" That simple ask used to kick off hours of back-and-forth where I fed an AI the same context over and over—only to get generic feedback that wouldn’t land with my audience or fit my products. As a product leader, that inefficiency was unacceptable; as a writer, it was just plain frustrating.

Not anymore. Today, Claude not only critiques my work, it helps me produce it. It generates marketing copy—in my voice. It helps me write blog posts. It knows what search terms are relevant to my business and helps me optimize my articles for SEO and now AEO. It helps me with competitive research, academic research, and discovery research. And it does all of this with little prompting from me.

I don’t upload files to a web-based project. I don’t manage elaborate prompt libraries. I don’t repeat myself. I ask for help and Claude knows exactly what to do. The shift happened when I learned how to give Claude Code a memory. Claude now knows who my target customer is, the key value propositions I focus on, the specific opportunities each product addresses, my revenue model, my marketing channels, and so much more.

A dark-themed strategy slide for the post Stop Repeating Yourself: Give Claude Code a Memory, showing how to lead with a CLAUDE.md glossary page, write clearly for nontechnical readers, and link glossary and article to boost discovery and engagement.

With that memory, I consistently get high-quality output tailored to my audience and aligned to my products and services. I don’t retype the same context; Claude just remembers. In this article, I’ll show you exactly how I set up that memory. It relies on Claude Code (which requires a Pro subscription), and it’s worth it. If you’re new to Claude Code, start with "Claude Code: What It Is, How It’s Different, and Why Non-Technical People Should Use It."

Here’s the underlying problem: with large language models, every conversation starts from scratch. Yes, ChatGPT can remember some things and Claude can search past conversations, but practically speaking each new thread wipes the slate clean. If I were working on a new landing page, I’d normally need to upload target customer context, product details, primary and secondary value propositions, FAQ questions and answers, plus testimonials and logos for social proof—every single time.

Start fast with Claude’s home screen: Sonnet 4.5 is ready, and quick actions for writing, learning, and coding sit beneath a clean prompt box—ideal for showing how memory cuts repetition and streamlines daily development.

Projects in web-based tools help a bit, but they introduce a new dilemma. When I move to the next landing page targeting the same customer but a different product and value proposition, do I start a new Project (tedious) or keep expanding the old one (which muddies the context window and degrades output quality)? The good news: Claude Code solves this by giving the model a precise, durable memory without overloading any single conversation.

Claude Code can read files on my local machine, which is an understated superpower. I use those files to create a persistent, reusable memory that works across all chats and Projects. Files can be mixed and matched, so I give Claude exactly what it needs for the task at hand—and nothing more. For a first landing page, I reference the target customer and the relevant product; for the second, I reuse the same target customer file and point to the new product file.

Dark-mode Notes screenshot captures Claude Code in action: it fetches producttalk.org, reads context files, and delivers a concise homepage evaluation—showing how memory streamlines repeated analysis tasks.

When you give an LLM the exact right context, output quality jumps. More context only helps if it’s the right context. For a landing page, Claude needs to know about the current product and perhaps related products for differentiation—but it doesn’t need to know about unrelated offerings. Structure your memory so Claude gets precisely what’s required.

Once I did this, Claude shifted from “intern who needs handholding” to trusted advisor and capable teammate. It doesn’t guess at my value propositions—I’ve already told it. It writes in my voice because it has my writing guide and samples. It knows who owns which course and which use cases map to which features. The setup takes a bit of upfront work, but it compounds: update a file when something changes and you’re done. Most of this information already lives in your system; the trick is making it easy for Claude to use.

See how Claude Code stops repetition: global and project CLAUDE.md files, plus custom reference docs, flow into the editor so the assistant remembers your preferences and context while you code and run commands.

Because the files live on my machine, I own the system. No vendor or device lock-in. I decide when and who to share with. I can work with Claude on one project and ChatGPT on another—both can rely on the same file-based memory strategy. It’s an AI strategy that scales with product discovery, accelerates go-to-market content, sharpens competitive differentiation, and supports product-led growth.

Here’s how I design the memory: I use three layers. Claude Code already encourages global preferences and Project-specific instructions, but the third layer—reference context—is where the real power lives.

Peek inside a markdown playbook for Claude Code: concise rules for writing, multi-level planning, and clear feedback that turn repeated reminders into reusable memory and smoother, faster coding sessions.

Layer 1: Global Preferences (Always on). The first time I launched Claude Code, I created a CLAUDE.md file at ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md. This is where I keep the cross-project rules of engagement—how I like to work with Claude. Mine includes: Always create a plan for me to review before you start any work; Give me direct feedback (no hedging, no gentle suggestions); Use bullet points for summaries; Ask clarifying questions one at a time so I can give complete answers; No emojis unless I explicitly ask for them. Claude Code automatically loads this file at the start of every session, so I never restate my preferences.

Layer 2: Project-Specific Instructions. Different projects have different rules. In my writing workspace, the Project CLAUDE.md sets the roles (I’m the primary writer; Claude is my thought partner and editor), defines a multi-round review flow (content → structure → accuracy → typos), prioritizes human readability over SEO, and points to my writing style guide. In my task management system, I include how my Trello integration works, file naming conventions for tasks, and how to process research papers into summaries. In my code projects, I specify the technology stack (Node.js vs. Python), testing framework (Jest for Node.js, pytest for Python), code style and conventions, project architecture and directory structure, and which dependencies and libraries to use. Each project directory has its own CLAUDE.md, and Claude automatically loads the relevant file when I’m working there.

Peek inside a markdown playbook for collaborating with Claude—covering session setup, roles, editorial standards, and research steps—to show how saved instructions create consistent results without repeating yourself.

Layer 3: Reference Context (Pull as Needed)—the real power. LLMs have a context window—a limit to how much they can process at once. Even within that limit, loading too much degrades performance due to “context rot.” The remedy is ruthless context management: small, targeted files that load only when needed. Keep CLAUDE.md files concise and focused on rules and workflows. For detailed knowledge, create separate reference files and list them in your CLAUDE.md so Claude knows they exist and when to fetch them. When I ask for help creating a landing page, Claude knows to use my business profile, the product file, and my target customers context.

Here’s what most people miss: you don’t cram everything into global or Project files. You maintain small, reusable reference files that Claude only loads on demand. In my walkthrough, I share exactly which context files I created and why; how I got Claude Code to help me create them; how I break them into small, reusable components so Claude gets precisely what it needs; how I keep everything up to date; and step-by-step instructions so you can set up a similar memory system.

Three project notes funnel into Claude Code, turning reusable context into working output. This visual shows how saving key docs as memory lets the AI pick up where you left off and skip repetitive prompting across tasks.

Let’s dive in.

Inspired by this post on Product Talk.

November 5, 2025