Tag: business technology

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4 Things Claude Code Built for My Project That I Couldn’t Have Built

A split-flap is the flip board you’d find in an airport or train station, where each character sits on a rotor that clacks through the alphabet until it reaches the right letter. I’ve been building a software version and writing about it as I go: a Windows app that paints the board on a monitor or TV, plus a control app where you enter messages, connect data feeds, and schedule what appears.

You already know the setup if you’ve been following along. I’m not a developer. I know what the product should do, and Claude Code works out how to build it. By this third stretch of the project, the route had become familiar: I could describe the destination, and Claude Code would head into territory beyond my map. Four parts of the project made that especially clear.

I assumed this was the easy part. You spin some letters until they land. How hard can that be?

The animation turned into a physics problem

Rather than choose a rendering method based on a guess, Claude Code built what developers call a spike, a temporary test used to answer a technical question before committing to an approach. It created two working prototypes. One used Avalonia’s transform animation engine, while the other drew the flap geometry by hand on every frame. It then measured both versions on my machine at several scales.

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AI Voice-Over Tools Have Matured. The Workflow Still Matters.

When I first wrote about AI text-to-speech tools in early 2023, the technology was moving quickly enough to feel experimental from month to month. The core idea was simple: instructional designers and training teams could write a script, generate narration, and produce audio without booking studio time, hiring voice talent, or recording multiple takes.

AI voice-over is no longer just a stand-alone audio capability. It is becoming part of a broader training media workflow. The same platforms now help generate scripts, record screens, create captions, translate content, produce avatars, edit video, and package content for delivery. The question is no longer whether AI text-to-speech is good enough for internal training. Often, it is. The better question is how training teams should use these tools without creating a messy, expensive production process.

The most important lesson may be this: fewer tools are often better.

Training teams have always been tempted by tool sprawl. One application for script writing. Another for voice-over. Another for screen recording, editing, animation, or captions. Each tool may be useful on its own, but the total workflow can become harder to manage than the content itself.

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Good Training Starts with the Real Problem

When a new system or upgrade struggles to gain traction, one of the first things people say is, “We need more training.”

Sometimes they are right.   A team may need a clearer introduction to the system.  A new hire may need guided practice.  A manager may need better tools to coach the work.  A global rollout may need structured learning so people understand what is changing, why it matters, and how to use the system correctly.

But in many organizations, the request for training is also a signal.  It often means users are confused, support teams are hearing the same questions, managers are filling in gaps, or people are creating workarounds because the intended process is not clear enough.

In those cases, training may be part of the answer, but it is rarely the whole answer.   The better question is not simply, “What training do we need?” The better question is, “Where is adoption breaking down?”

This question changes the work.  It moves the discussion beyond courses and classes.  It brings workflow, product design, documentation, support readiness, manager communication, system usability, and knowledge access into the same conversation.  It also recognizes a reality many global organizations know well: people cannot adopt what they do not understand, cannot find, cannot trust, or cannot fit into the way they actually work.

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