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

<p><strong>Daniel Blum</strong> 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.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>What you’ll learn:</strong></p><ol><li>Why Daniel says the two rules that make any AI system powerful aren’t about the tool you pick</li><li>How his weekly prep automation fills an entire Notion board from scratch every Sunday, without his touching it</li><li>The morning brief feature that teaches Claude new internal terms on its own, so company jargon never slows it down</li><li>Why he describes Notion as “read-only” now, and what that says about how PM workflows are changing</li><li>The self-improvement loop that watches Daniel’s edits, spots recurring friction, and suggests new skills to build</li><li>How he uses a skill called “Improve” to filter the endless flood of AI tips without drowning in them</li><li>What he built to scale his personal system to every PM at Melio, and the UX lesson he learned the hard way</li><li>The capability gap that’s still keeping him from running 100% of his work through Claude</li></ol><p>—</p><p><strong>Brought to you by:</strong></p><p><a href="https://optimize.ly/3KD565S"><strong>Optimizely</strong></a>—Your AI agent orchestration platform for marketing and digital teams</p><p><a href="https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/trackclk/N320202.6053656HOWIAI/B36397005.454541156;dc_trk_aid=648366078;dc_trk_cid=262806969;dc_lat=;dc_rdid=;tag_for_child_directed_treatment=;tfua=;gdpr=$%7BGDPR%7D;gdpr_consent=$%7BGDPR_CONSENT_755%7D;ltd=;dc_tdv=1"><strong>Jira AI SDLC</strong></a>—Get your tokens’ worth with Jira</p><p>—</p><p><strong>In this episode, we cover:</strong></p><p>(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw">00:00</a>) Daniel’s background and the PM overhead problem he needed to solve</p><p>(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=210s">03:30</a>) His AI stack at Melio</p><p>(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=300s">05:00</a>) The two rules that make any AI system genuinely powerful</p><p>(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=360s">06:00</a>) The Notion board Cowork built for him (and manages on his behalf)</p><p>(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=450s">07:30</a>) How he contextualizes Claude with voice memos, links, and recurring updates</p><p>(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=540s">09:00</a>) His weekly prep automation</p><p>(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=660s">11:00</a>) His morning brief</p><p>(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=900s">15:00</a>) How Claude flags unknown internal terms and saves them to context</p><p>(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=1050s">17:30</a>) Running 70% to 80% of his workday through Cowork</p><p>(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=1140s">19:00</a>) Chrome connector vs. MCPs for tools without integrations</p><p>(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=1200s">20:00</a>) The real ROI question: why the early weeks feel slow, and why you push through anyway</p><p>(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=1500s">25:00</a>) Scaling the system to the team with the Workstation plugin</p><p>(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=1590s">26:30</a>) The self-improvement loop</p><p>(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qmX6TM0kw&t=1860s">31:00</a>) How the Improve skill separates actually useful AI tips from the hype</p><p>(<a href="