By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn
Teresa Torres describes how her blog-writing process changed once she began using Claude as a collaborator for outlining, critiquing, researching, and headline work, which lets her write more. She argues that designing an AI workflow resembles designing a product solution and draws on discovery habits. The first step she recommends is mapping out, step by step, how you currently complete a task, similar to story mapping. The piece sets up a sequence of picking one step to automate or augment, choosing between code and LLM approaches, prototyping, and iterating. The full walkthrough is for paid subscribers, so this free portion covers only the setup and first step.
01Key takeaways
- Start an AI workflow by asking how the tool can help with a specific task you already do.
- Map every step you take to complete a task before deciding what to automate.
- Use a story-mapping style breakdown to see exactly where AI can add value.
- Expect AI workflows to grow iteratively rather than being designed in one sitting.
- Treat AI-workflow design like product design, using discovery habits to guide it.
02Key sections
- From messy writing to AI-assisted thinking
- The author explains how her outline-and-write process used to be tangled, and how asking Claude for help turned her thinking into a discussion rather than trial-and-error drafting.
- Expanding Claude's role across the writing process
- She lists the many tasks she now offloads to Claude, including headline brainstorming, critiquing sections, research, and SEO, and notes that the workflow grew iteratively.
- Series context and disclosure
- The article places itself as the fifth in a Claude Code series and states that she has received no compensation from Anthropic.
- Map the task before automating it
- Before automating anything, document each step you take to complete the task, doing it yourself several times if needed, to reveal where AI can help.
- Blog-post workflow as an example
- She breaks her blog-writing process into ten steps, from choosing a topic through sending the draft to her editor, and ties the mapping to story mapping.
03From the post
“My writing process used to be messy. I'd start with a brain dump of everything that was swirling in my head. Then I would try to structure it into an outline. But I often lost patience with that. So I'd just start writing. Then I'd realize I”
04Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.