The Claude Code Tutorial for AI PMs: Why You Need to Use It + How
Product Growth Podcast
The CLAUDE file: project memory and rules
Carl explains init, the generated CLAUDE file, persistent project rules, and how it stores project-wide instructions and styles.
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.
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Check out the conversation on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.
Brought to you by:
* Linear: Plan and build products like the best
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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.
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Where to Find Carl Vellotti
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Related Content
Podcasts:
Newsletters:
AI Agents: The Ultimate Guide for PMs
Ultimate Guide to AI Prototyping Tools
How to Land a $300K+ AI Product Manager Job
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