Laura Rosenberger

Tag: automation

  • The Rise of the AI Operator

    Ops teams are always under pressure to cut costs, but they rarely get prioritised for dev time or allocated budget for new tools. They're stuck firefighting with no space to build something better.

    If you're an ops person who learns to build automations or AI tools – even small ones – you can create tools with massive leverage. And you're uniquely positioned to do this well. You're in the weeds so you see exactly what's causing drag and with AI, you can build something quickly to fix it (or at least make it less bad).

    The impact compounds as you move through the operation, continually improving it, fixing bottleneck after bottleneck.

    If you don't have these skills in your team, you're stuck doing everything manually, hiring linearly with growth.

    There's going to be a divergence where two similar businesses look identical from the outside, but one needs half the people to run the same operation.

    The role of 'AI operator' doesn't really exist yet as a job title. But it will. And the companies who figure out how to build or hire or train for it are going to have a structural cost advantage that's very hard to compete with.

  • Claude Code Plugin for Obsidian

    Last year I moved all my notes and files out of Notion and into Obsidian. With Notion, you're locked in to whatever tools they give you. I wanted to be file-first rather than software-first, so I could use the latest AI tools on my actual files.

    I was already using Claude Code to work with my files. Then I found a community plugin for Obsidian that adds Claude Code as a sidebar. I now have access to Claude Code and everything it can do right where my notes are.

    The Solution

    I installed the Claude Code plugin from Obsidian's community plugins. It adds a sidebar where I can have conversations with Claude Code whilst viewing my files. There's a button to link specific files into the conversation, so Claude has context on exactly what I'm working with.

    This isn't just having a conversation with Claude, this is Claude Code, which means it can take actions, plan, and has all the power that Claude Code has rather than just Claude, which has been way more useful.

    How I Use It

    As a practical example, I keep Markdown files for potential clients in my CRM folder. After a sales call, I use the sidebar to automatically pull in transcripts and add my personal notes and thoughts to create really high-quality notes about each client. It updates the metadata properties at the top of the file. That's how I track what needs to happen next – things like 'awaiting proposal' or 'follow up in two weeks'.

    I can also ask it, 'Who do I need to follow up with?' and it'll search my CRM notes and draft emails for each person.

    The whole thing takes a fraction of the time it used to, and to be honest, this kind of thing I often used to not be super on top of because it felt like a chore. Now I actually do it, or rather, now it gets done for me.

    Why This Has Impact

    Better follow-ups, less prep time before meetings, and I can easily search my notes to find who might be a good fit for something.

    The bigger win is flexibility. I'm not locked into any specific tool. My notes are just Markdown files. If a better AI tool comes out tomorrow, I can use it on the same files. File-first means I control my data and what I can do with it, instead of being locked in.