How I turned Claude into a self-improving PM assistant | Daniel Blum (PM, Melio)

Daniel Blum, a product manager at B2B payments company Melio, has built a Claude- and Cowork-based productivity system that automates his Notion board, processes Slack and email, and runs self-improvement loops weekly, enabling him to run 70% to 80% of his workday through the AI assistant. Blum also created a 'Workstation' onboarding plugin that sets up a personalized Claude system for any Melio employee in about 15 minutes, scaling his personal workflow to the entire team.

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, or Apple Podcasts What you’ll learn: Why Daniel says the two rules that make any AI system powerful aren’t about the tool you pick How his weekly prep automation fills an entire Notion board from scratch every Sunday, without his touching it The morning brief feature that teaches Claude new internal terms on its own, so company jargon never slows it down Why he describes Notion as “read-only” now, and what that says about how PM workflows are changing The self-improvement loop that watches Daniel’s edits, spots recurring friction, and suggests new skills to build How he uses a skill called “Improve” to filter the endless flood of AI tips without drowning in them What he built to scale his personal system to every PM at Melio, and the UX lesson he learned the hard way The capability gap that’s still keeping him from running 100% of his work through Claude Brought to you by: Optimizely —Your AI agent orchestration platform for marketing and digital teams Jira AI SDLC —Get your tokens’ worth with Jira In this episode, we cover: 00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw Daniel’s background and the PM overhead problem he needed to solve 03:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=210s His AI stack at Melio 05:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=300s The two rules that make any AI system genuinely powerful 06:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=360s The Notion board Cowork built for him and manages on his behalf 07:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=450s How he contextualizes Claude with voice memos, links, and recurring updates 09:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=540s His weekly prep automation 11:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=660s His morning brief 15:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=900s How Claude flags unknown internal terms and saves them to context 17:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=1050s Running 70% to 80% of his workday through Cowork 19:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=1140s Chrome connector vs. MCPs for tools without integrations 20:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=1200s The real ROI question: why the early weeks feel slow, and why you push through anyway 25:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=1500s Scaling the system to the team with the Workstation plugin 26:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=1590s The self-improvement loop 31:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=1860s How the Improve skill separates actually useful AI tips from the hype 32:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=1920s The Workstation onboarding flow, and the UX lesson from distributing “Spectacular” 38:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=2280s The 20% Claude still can’t do, and what changes when it can 41:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=2460s What Daniel spends his reclaimed time on 42:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=2550s Claude rage Tools referenced: • Claude: https://claude.ai https://claude.ai • Notion: https://notion.so https://notion.so Other references: • From a $6.90 newsletter to $3M API: How a non-coder built Memelord | Jason Levin: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/from-a-690-newsletter-to-3m-api-how?utm source=publication-search https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/from-a-690-newsletter-to-3m-api-how?utm source=publication-search • How the founder of Morning Brew built a Claude content machine that never runs out of ideas and never sounds like slop | Alex Lieberman: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-the-founder-of-morning-brew-built?utm source=publication-search https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-the-founder-of-morning-brew-built?utm source=publication-search Where to find Daniel Blum: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blumd/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/blumd/ Website: https://www.imdanielblum.com https://www.imdanielblum.com Where to find Claire Vo: ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/ https://www.chatprd.ai/ Website: https://clairevo.com/ https://clairevo.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/ Production and marketing by https://penname.co/ https://penname.co/ . For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email email protected /cdn-cgi/l/email-protection .