I am a Product Marketing Manager. This means I spend most of my days writing positioning frameworks, competitive analysis, launch plans, content strategies, and go-to-market recommendations. Over and over again.

Each one takes hours. Each one follows a proven structure. And each one used to require hours of prep work and research just to get started.

Not anymore.

I built a system that turns the marketing frameworks I wrote about in my book (Picks and Shovels: Marketing to Developers During the AI Gold Rush) into Claude-powered tools. Now I generate in minutes what used to take hours. The output follows the same frameworks I've refined over years of practice. And I can focus on strategy instead of execution.

Here's how I did it, and how you can build your own system.

The foundation: frameworks over ad-hoc prompts

Most people use Claude by asking it questions. They type a request, get an answer, refine it, iterate. This works for one-off tasks, but it fails for repeated work.

The problem is inconsistency. Ask Claude to "create a positioning framework" and you'll get something different every time. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it misses critical elements. You spend time fixing gaps and correcting mistakes.

The solution is frameworks. Not vague requests, but detailed structures that define exactly what you want.

In Picks and Shovels, I document the frameworks I use for developer marketing. How to position a developer product. How to analyze competitors honestly. How to plan a launch that reaches technical audiences. How to build content strategies that help before they sell.

These frameworks became the foundation of my Claude automation system.

From frameworks to tools: slash commands

Claude supports custom slash commands. They're like shortcuts that expand into detailed prompts.

I created four commands I use constantly:

• /generate-positioning-framework. Creates complete positioning with developer personas, value propositions, differentiators, messaging pillars, and competitive analysis. The prompt includes the exact structure from Picks and Shovels, asking Claude to focus on technical credibility and the Help First mindset.
• /generate-battlecard. Builds honest competitive analysis. Not the marketing bullshit where your product wins at everything. Real analysis that acknowledges competitor strengths, admits your weaknesses, and helps customers make informed decisions.
• /generate-launch-plan. Generates comprehensive launch plans with timelines, channel strategies (Product Hunt, Hacker News, Reddit, Dev.to), content checklists, and metrics dashboards. It adapts based on launch tier and team resources.
• /generate-content-strategy. Creates content calendars, theme analysis, distribution strategies, and SEO targeting. All grounded in the Help First approach where you educate before you promote.

Each command is a markdown file in my .claude/commands/ directory. The file contains the detailed prompt that structures Claude's response.

I don't just ask Claude to generate something. I tell it exactly what frameworks to use, what structure to follow, what principles to apply, and what format to return.

Beyond execution: Claude Skills for domain expertise

Slash commands tell Claude what to do. Skills tell Claude what to know.

Claude Skills are different from slash commands. A slash command is a workflow. It executes a specific task. A skill is domain expertise. It teaches Claude how to think about an entire domain.

I have a skill for competitive battlecards. It's 300 lines of proven knowledge about how to analyze competitors honestly. How to structure objection handling. How to identify scenarios where each product wins. When to acknowledge competitor strengths. When to recommend the competitor instead of your product.

When Claude has this skill loaded, it doesn't just follow instructions. It understands the domain. It anticipates problems. It suggests analysis I haven't thought of yet.

Here's the difference:

Without the skill, I ask: "Help me create a competitive battlecard for our product vs Firebase."

Claude gives generic advice. Compare features. List pros and cons. Create a pricing table. It works, but it's superficial.

With the skill, Claude knows:

• Don't just list features, explain technical trade-offs and when each matters
• Structure objections in the customer's actual words, not sanitized marketing speak
• Include scenarios where the competitor genuinely wins, not just where you win
• Build trust by being honest about your weaknesses
• Frame "when to choose" guidance as helping customers make the right decision, not pushing your product
• Always link to proof (documentation, benchmarks, case studies) for technical claims

The skill transforms Claude from a helpful assistant into a competitive intelligence expert.

For developer marketing, I need skills beyond marketing frameworks. I need to understand database architectures, authentication systems, serverless patterns, edge computing. My job is positioning developer products. I can't position what I don't understand.

Skills package that knowledge. I'm building skills for:

• Competitive analysis and battlecard creation
• Product positioning and messaging frameworks
• Launch planning and channel strategies
• Webinar planning and content development

These capture the frameworks from Picks and Shovels. They document the mental models, not just procedures. They turn years of practice into reusable expertise.

Skills live in .claude/skills/ as markdown files. They're longer than slash commands. More detailed. They teach Claude how to think about entire domains.

You can create skills for any domain. Marketing frameworks. Sales methodologies. Technical domains. Industry knowledge. Competitive intelligence. Each skill makes Claude smarter in that specific area.

Want to build your own skill? Describe the principles you like in Picks and Shovels and ask Claude to generate the skills for you!

From slash commands to MCP servers

Slash commands work great locally. But they only work in Claude. What if you want the same tools in ChatGPT? Or in automated workflows? Or as a service other people can use?

That's where MCP servers come in.

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a standard way to give AI models access to external tools. I built an MCP server with five developer marketing tools based on Picks and Shovels.

The server exposes these tools:

• positioning_framework. Same as my slash command, but as a structured tool with defined inputs (product name, description, target audience, competitors) and outputs (persona, value prop, differentiators, messaging, positioning).
• launch_planner. Creates launch plans based on product type, launch date, and go-to-market strategy. Returns week-by-week timelines, channel tactics, and success metrics.
• competitive_analyzer. Takes your product and competitors, returns feature comparisons, developer experience assessments, pricing analysis, and strategic recommendations. The analysis is balanced and honest, not one-sided marketing spin.
• content_strategy. Generates content themes, calendars, and distribution strategies based on your audience and goals. Uses the Help First methodology to prioritize education over promotion.
• gtm_advisor. Provides go-to-market recommendations for developer products. Suggests the right motion (product-led, sales-led, hybrid), channel priorities, partnership strategies, and key milestones.

The MCP server runs on Supabase Edge Functions. It's globally distributed, automatically scales, and I only pay for usage. Any AI system that supports MCP can use these tools. Claude, ChatGPT, custom agents, automated workflows.

Why you need all three: skills, slash commands, and MCP servers

Each tool serves a different purpose. Together they create a complete system.

• Skills provide the knowledge foundation. They teach Claude your domain expertise. Marketing frameworks. Technical knowledge. Industry insights. Competitive intelligence. Skills make Claude think like an expert in your field.
• Slash commands execute specific tasks. They take that expertise and apply it to concrete deliverables. Generate a positioning framework. Create a launch plan. Build a competitive analysis. Slash commands are your personal automation layer.
• MCP servers make it portable and shareable. They package your tools as a service that works across AI systems. Use them in Claude, ChatGPT, custom agents, automated workflows. Share them with your team. Build products on top of them.

Here's how they work together:

1. I have a skill that teaches Claude the Picks and Shovels frameworks for developer marketing. Claude understands positioning pillars, the Help First mindset, how to analyze competitors honestly, how to launch on technical channels.
2. I have slash commands that execute specific marketing tasks using those frameworks. Each command references the frameworks. Each command produces consistent output that follows the methodology. If the skill is the recipe, the slash command is the cook.
3. I have an MCP server that exposes those same tasks as structured tools. Now ChatGPT can use them. Automated workflows can use them. Other marketers on my team can use them. The expertise scales beyond my local machine.

Without skills, the slash commands produce generic output. Without slash commands, the skills are just knowledge that requires manual application. Without MCP servers, the tools only work locally in Claude.

Together, they transform how you work.

Does this mean nobody needs a PMM?

The opposite, actually.

The hard part of product marketing has never been writing positioning frameworks or putting competitive analysis on paper. Anybody can do that. Now it's being automated through slash commands, skills, and MCP servers.

The real magic of product marketing is cross-organizational leadership.

• A great PMM knows how to land the positioning framework in sales so it shows up in every customer conversation. Not just send a doc in Slack and hope people read it. Actually work with sales leaders to understand their needs, translate the positioning into talk tracks, sit in on calls, give feedback, iterate until the messaging lands.
• A great PMM knows how to leverage the work Customer Success and Customer Support do. They're talking to customers every day. They hear what's working. What's confusing. What resonates. A great PMM builds relationships with these teams, extracts insights, feeds it back into the positioning, and makes sure the frameworks reflect what customers are actually trying to do.
• A great PMM knows how to work with product teams and build trust. You become a valued launch partner. Not someone who shows up at the end asking for a blog post. Someone who understands the product deeply, asks good questions, provides feedback on requirements, and helps engineering teams see their work through the customer's eyes.

These are hard skills. Leadership skills. Skills where your technical credibility matters. Where your communication style determines whether people want to work with you. Where your ability to translate between technical and business contexts makes you invaluable.

You can't automate relationship building. You can't automate trust. You can't automate the moment in a product review meeting where you ask the question that changes the roadmap.

What you can automate is the mechanical work. The document creation. The research synthesis. The framework structuring. The comparison tables. The launch timeline templates.

Automating the mechanical stuff means you spend your time on what actually matters. Building relationships. Landing strategy. Providing feedback. Making sure the work gets used, not filed away.

The frameworks are what matter

The tools are useful. The automation saves time. But the frameworks are what make this work.

Without good frameworks, Claude generates generic output. With frameworks, Claude generates expert-level work.

Picks and Shovels teaches the frameworks for developer marketing. How to position products for technical audiences. How to compete honestly. How to launch on channels developers actually use. How to create content that helps instead of sells.

Those frameworks became my Claude tools. They can become yours too.