Hey hey,
Every two weeks I sit down for a two-hour conversation with the vibe marketer’s community. Last week, Stephane one of the community members asked something that stuck with me.
He had built a lead gen workflow in Claude Code. APIs connected. Database on Supabase. He would run a command and seven steps would fire: scrape leads, filter, enrich, upload to an email sequencer. Seven steps, every time.
So what's the problem here?
He wanted someone from his team to take over. But handing it off meant handing them access to the code. And if they ran something wrong, or the output didn't look right, or a step broke, they would not have any idea what happened. It would come back to him anyway.
The workflow worked. But, it only worked because he was in it.
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Here's what I told him:
Turn it into an internal tool your team can use. Something they can use without understanding what's behind it.
I have done this. I wrap my workflows into micro products or plugins I share with my team.
So, you build it almost like an internal product:
- A simple screen, a button, an interface that abstracts the complexity away from the user
- Deploy it somewhere like a simple URL, anywhere that doesn't require them to
open Claude Code
- That way you don't have to worry about them breaking anything and they interact with the product, not the process
If you look closely at what I'm describing, it's not a workflow with a better interface.
It's a system.
So, what is the difference between a workflow and a system?
A workflow executes. A system thinks, learns, measures and gets more useful every time it runs.
Aspect | Workflow | System |
|---|---|---|
How it runs | You trigger it manually | Runs on a user action — no technical knowledge needed |
Who can use it | Only the person who built it | Anyone on the team |
What happens when input varies | Breaks or produces wrong output | Accommodates variation, adapts |
What happens when something changes | You go back in and fix it | It adjusts — the loop corrects it over time |
Does it learn | No — every run starts from zero | Yes — usage improves it without rebuilding |
Can you measure it | Not really | Yes — performance is tracked, patterns emerge |
A workflow is one-dimensional. It fires steps. The moment something shifts, it needs you.
A system is different. It accommodates variation. It learns from how people use it. It measures what's working. And it doesn't require everyone to understand how it works and it just has to work for them. Each run makes the next one better. Without you having to go back in and tweak it.
Now, the big question is - do you have to build a product for the system to work?
Not necessarily.
What the person using this actually needs is simple: to be able to use it without understanding what's behind it. To see the output clearly. To signal what worked and what didn't. And to trust that it gets better based on that signal.
a. That can be a full product you build from scratch.
b. Or, it can also be your existing tools: Notion, Slack, Google Sheets connected the right way. The format is less important than the structure underneath it.
The Framework — How to Turn a Workflow Into a System?
Layer 1 — Input Layer
Can anyone use it without understanding what's behind it?
The input layer is where the user enters the picture. Not you. Them. Simple enough that they don't need to know what happens next just what to provide.
- What information does the system need to run?
- How will the user provide it? (A form, a Slack message, a row in a Sheet, a button)
- What happens if they provide it in a slightly different format — does it still work?
Layer 2 — Process Layer
What happens in the background and where does it need to think, not just execute?
This is your workflow. Probably already built. The question here isn't what the steps are. It's where the process needs judgment vs where it just fires.
- What are the steps, in order?
- At which step does something need to be evaluated. Not just run?
- Where is it most likely to break, and what should happen when it does without coming back to you?
Layer 3 — Output Layer
What does the user see and can they act on it?
The output layer is what makes it feel like a system. The user sees a result. Not a wall of text. Something clear, visual, actionable with enough context that they trust it.
- What does the output look like a list, a report, a draft, a score?
- Where does it land? (Notion, Slack, Google Sheets, email)
- Can the user tell at a glance whether it's useful?
- What evidence is in the output that helps them trust it?
Layer 4 — Feedback Layer
How does the user signal what worked without filling out a form?
This is the layer most workflows are missing. It doesn't have to be complex. It just has to exist and it has to be effortless for the user.
- How does the user signal that an output was useful? (A tag, a tick, moving it to a folder, a reaction in Slack)
- How is that signal captured automatically?
- What does that signal tell the system about what to do differently next time?
Layer 5 — Analyse + Measure Layer
How does the system know it's getting better, so you don't have to keep going back in?
This is what makes the system self-improving. Not you tweaking it each time the system learning from patterns across runs, adjusting what it produces, and showing you what's working over time.
- What does success look like — and how is it measured? (Not just "did it run" and what outcome matters?)
- What patterns from feedback and usage should feed back into the input layer?
- What should you be able to see over time: a trend, a score, an improvement rate?
- If something changes in how the system behaves, how will you know without having to check manually?
Answer them and copy everything from above (your answers included) and paste it into Claude or Claude Code. Turn your workflows into systems your teams can use.
So, to sum it up:
Most people stop at the output. The workflow ran. Something came out. Done.
But the output is just the middle of the story. What happens after the output lands that's what makes it a system.
Does the output get measured? Does the user's response feed back in? Does the next run know anything the last run learned?
If yes, each run makes the next one better. The output stops being a block of text and starts being something you can act on, measure, and improve. Without touching the workflow each time.
That's the difference between automating a task and building something that compounds.
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Honestly, these sessions are what fire me up.
I get to see what people are actually building, what's working, what's not, and where they're stuck.
The vibe marketer’s community is full of incredible people who show up in discussions and help each other out but there's a different energy when it's a live conversation.
Something shifts when you're talking through a real problem in real time.
So if you're building something, have something to share, want to ask a question, or just want to be in the room I run Vibe Sessions bi-weekly. Every two weeks, same format. Real problems, real builds, no fluff.
If you're already in the community, we have our next session on April 22 at 10 AM EST. You can check the event and add it to your calendar here…
And, regardless of whether you're in the community or not. Try the framework above. Work through the five layers for something you have already built. See where the gaps are. Let me know how it goes.
Have a great day.
—
Here’s what I have been reading this week:
1. How to structure high converting email sequences…
2. Claude Code just shipped routines.
3. Claude Managed Agents in 60 seconds…
4. Claude Schedules vs Routines (What's the difference).
5. Stop writing 500-word prompts that don't work…
6. Real difference between: Skills vs Prompts.
7. The agentic marketing stack with Claude Code…
Learn. Ship. Grow. With AI.
Crazy time to be building with AI. And, looks like Claude code is leading the game…
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Wanna learn from marketers actually shipping with AI? Upgrade yourself.
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—The Boring Marketer