Getting Started with AI

John Garrish

I get asked a lot » If I’m ready to graduate from “consumer AI” … what’s next?

Here are a few thoughts for PMs - or anyone - about how to get hands-on with AI without getting lost. Not an exhaustive list, just what I’m using and watching right now.

Low-risk first projects

  • Stand up a small personal site with Claude Code - Great intro to agentic coding loops and Github without anything corporate or expensive on the line.
  • Try the Cursor PM tutorial - a gentler on-ramp if you’d rather start in a familiar editor before going full Claude Code.

Both are good ways to build intuition before you point AI at anything that matters.

Good follows

Staying current on AI is half the battle:

My current stack - heavy use

  • Claude Code - for everything I can possibly use it for. I’ve created a lot of skills - use these a ton. It’s been helpful to standardize on Claude Code as a way to share skills across projects.
  • Github - I find myself “caging in” my AI work with file folders, and this fits naturally into the Git/Github lifestyle.

Fan club - light use

  • A bit of Claude Cowork — I consider it a nerfed-up Claude Code. Useful in some situations where I just need to manage files that are already on my desktop. But it feels slower to me than native Claude Code. Maybe it’s my imagination.
  • frontend-slides — a “slideware” creator I’ve used a bunch. Plenty of these out there, but I like this one.
  • Lovable - I don’t use it tons, but it’s been very useful in a couple of super-corporate sitautions. It’s easy for prototyping with teams of mixed skill levels (“campfire model”). Not for actual code - just mockups to get everyone on the same page
  • Linear — next-gen Jira, or Jira without the Jira bullshit.
  • Miro — my old standby for free-form drawing and online brainstorming with a team. The love affair endures.
  • Obsidian — very well executed. I don’t find myself using it as much as I thought, but I think it’s more me than the tool.

Watch list

  • Anything new from Claude Code — so many new things. Hard to keep up - just follow on X.
  • VS Code — as Cursor moves on to bigger and better things, I think this is the ticket for editing many files on the desktop, in AI-enabled-word-processor mode. I can embed and situate Claude Code NEAR the file, and then hand-edit the file, which is a great combo. Old is new.
  • NotebookLM — I hear good things about this on the more academic end of the research continuum.
  • [Systemzero](https://www.systemzero.co/ - CFO platform - spending a lot of time trying this out, it has promise as a way to analyze operational-financial information in a safe crucible.

Old flames

  • Cursor — I used this heavily in 2025 as “file-based AI” (a good desktop editor for PM file-based work), but I find it harder to use now that they ditched VS Code.
  • Replit — my first foray into vibe-coding. Still has a place in my heart, and I think it has promise — especially for “internal apps” at large companies where you need a safe, IT-approved platform. But it’s slooooow for my day-to-day. Crufty.

Not a user, for no particular reason

  • ChatGPT / Open AI / Codex
  • Windsurf

Meh

  • Microsoft Copilot — pretty much universally bad in every incarnation.
  • Gamma — popular, but I find it hard to control. Slop cannon.
  • All the consumer chats — ChatGPT, Claude web. Fine for civilian use, but I find them sloppy for corporate use.