Practical Applications of Vibe Coding
Summary#
Two PM-relevant signals today: Lenny Rachitsky's interview with Webflow CPO Rachel Wolan on building a custom AI chief of staff app, and Simon Willison's recent blog posts on AI-assisted development workflows including extracting transcripts from Claude Code and delivering proven code. Both demonstrate practical applications of vibe coding and AI tooling for product work.
Lenny Rachitsky - How Webflow's CPO Built an AI Chief of Staff#
Author: Lenny Rachitsky (Former PM at Airbnb; Newsletter author) Source: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-webflows-cpo-built-an-ai-chief
tl;dr: Webflow's CPO built a custom AI chief-of-staff app for meeting prep and calendar management. PMs can build AI tools tailored to their workflows instead of using generic productivity tools.
What changed: Webflow CPO shared how she built a custom AI app that automates calendar management and meeting preparation.
PM Takeaway: PMs can build custom AI tools for their specific workflows rather than adapting generic productivity solutions.
PM problem addressed: Generic productivity tools don't fit PM-specific workflows, limiting effectiveness for time management and meeting prep.
How to apply:
- Map repetitive PM tasks (calendar, meeting prep, info synthesis)
- Build custom AI tools or workflows to automate them
Decision this informs: Whether to build custom AI tools vs. buy off-the-shelf solutions for PM workflows.
Pattern to note: PMs are building custom AI tools for their workflows, relating to vibe coding and AI-assisted development trends.
Simon Willison - Recent AI Development Workflow Posts#
Author: Simon Willison (Co-creator of Django; Creator of Datasette) Source: https://simonwillison.net
tl;dr: Simon Willison published posts on AI-assisted development workflows including transcript extraction and code verification. These show practical techniques for using AI coding tools beyond basic code generation.
What changed: Published multiple December 2025 posts on AI-assisted development workflows and techniques.
PM Takeaway: AI coding tools need features beyond code generation, like transcript extraction and verification workflows.
PM problem addressed: PMs lack concrete examples of effective AI coding tool workflows when building or evaluating features.
How to apply:
- Prioritize transcript extraction and code verification features
- Evaluate tools based on advanced workflow support
Decision this informs: Which AI coding capabilities to prioritize beyond code generation speed.
Pattern to note: Developers use AI coding tools for learning and verification, not just code generation speed.
Other Notable Updates#
Additional items found in today's research (not included in detailed analysis above):
- Simon Willison - A new way to extract detailed transcripts from Claude Code (Dec 25): https://simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/25/claude-code-transcripts/
- Simon Willison - Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work (Dec 18): https://simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/18/code-proven-to-work/
- Geoffrey Litt - Code like a surgeon (Oct 24): https://www.geoffreylitt.com/2025/10/24/code-like-a-surgeon
- Geoffrey Litt - AI as teleportation (Sep 10): https://www.geoffreylitt.com/2025/09/10/ai-as-teleportation
- Geoffrey Litt - Enough AI copilots! We need AI HUDs (Jul 27): https://www.geoffreylitt.com/2025/07/27/enough-ai-copilots-we-need-ai-huds
Daily Product Reflection Challenge#
When to Build Custom AI Tools vs. Buy#
Webflow's CPO built a custom AI chief-of-staff app for her own workflow instead of using off-the-shelf productivity tools. At what point does the time investment in building custom AI tools for your PM workflow justify the opportunity cost of not using existing solutions?
Complete your reflection in /reflections/daily/2025-12-29.md