John Blackman, a 91-year-old retired electrical engineer, shares how he used Claude and Replit to build a complex application for his church’s community service events—with no prior software development experience and for less than $350. His app allows event organizers to create events, recruit volunteers, and manage sign-ups, with a standout feature for organizing free oil changes for participants.
What you’ll learn:
- How John used Claude to create detailed product requirements and user stories
- John’s philosophy on embracing new technology throughout his career
- The exact process for integrating third-party APIs (like VIN lookup for oil changes) with minimal technical knowledge
- How he automated report generation for volunteer management and resource planning
- How the software generates personalized Impact Passports for event participants
- Why letting AI build without preconceived notions of “correct” implementation can lead to faster, more functional results
- How to troubleshoot common development-to-production issues when working with AI coding tools
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Brought to you by:
WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready today
Orkes—The enterprise platform for reliable applications and agentic workflows
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Where to find John Blackman:
Website: http://johnbeng.com/
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Where to find Claire Vo:
ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/
Website: https://clairevo.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/
X: https://x.com/clairevo
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction to John Blackman and his background
(02:55) John’s impressive career
(03:59) How the church project started
(05:06) Using Claude to create a development roadmap and requirements document
(07:29) The concept of the Impact Passport for event participants
(08:57) Generating user stories and requirements with Claude
(10:32) The multi-tenant architecture with system and local church administrators
(12:54) Building the application with Replit
(13:32) Demo of the administrator interface and event management features
(17:56) Specialized reports for different services (food pantry, vision center, oil changes)
(20:30) The participant registration flow with QR code scanning
(21:55) Adding new features like volunteer name tag generation
(24:40) Troubleshooting AI “rabbit trails” during development
(26:09) Challenges moving from development to production
(27:13) John’s lack of coding experience
(29:42) The advantage of having no preconceived notions about implementation
(30:25) Total development costs and timeline
(31:31) Impact and reception from the church community
(32:42) Lightning round and final thoughts
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Tools referenced:
• Claude: https://claude.ai/
• Replit: https://replit.com/
• SendGrid: https://sendgrid.com/
• AutoCAD: https://www.autodesk.com/products/autocad/
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Other references:
• OpenAI API: https://openai.com/api/
• VIN (vehicle identification number): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_identification_number
• Multi-tenant architecture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitenancy
• Role-based access control: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-based_access_control
• Excel: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/excel
• Docusign: https://www.docusign.com/
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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co.
