Case study · avanigala.com
How I built my PM portfolio
with an AI-native workflow
I started with Webflow, hit a paywall, and decided to learn something new instead. Here's the full story of how I rebuilt my portfolio using Claude, Claude Code, GitHub, and Vercel — without writing a single line of code from scratch.
The origin story
Like many PMs building a portfolio for the first time, I started on Webflow. The drag-and-drop editor was fast, the templates looked polished, and I had something live within a weekend. Then the free plan trial ended.
"$18 a month to host a static website with no database, no dynamic content, no server — just HTML, CSS, and my case studies."
I did what any PM would do: I asked whether the pricing was justified by the value. It wasn't. The site was entirely static — no backend, no CMS, no real reason to pay for managed hosting. So I started researching alternatives.
Static site + free hosting = Claude Code + GitHub + Vercel. Total hosting cost: $0/month.
The workflow, step by step
Before touching any code or design tool, I used Claude to think through the structure. What kind of PM roles was I targeting? What should I lead with? How do you frame PM work without shipping metrics? Claude acted as a thinking partner — helping me work through positioning, case study structure, and copy.
With a clear direction, I handed the build to Claude Code inside VS Code. I described the pages I needed — home, about, case studies, contact — and Claude generated the full Next.js codebase. When something looked off, I described the problem in plain English. Claude fixed it, made the change, ran verification, and committed automatically.
I didn't just build — I managed the project. I used GitHub Projects as a kanban board, filing issues for every change and moving cards as Claude Code completed them. It turned the portfolio build into a proper PM workflow: backlog refinement, priority tagging, in-progress tracking, and done reviews.
I connected the GitHub repo to Vercel in a single click. Every push to main — whether from Claude Code or directly — triggered an automatic deploy. Builds took 17–29 seconds. The site at avanigala.com went live with HTTPS, a global CDN, and zero monthly cost.
Reflection
What this actually felt like
The Webflow frustration turned out to be a forcing function. If I hadn't hit that paywall, I probably never would have learned this workflow. And the workflow itself changed how I think about building things: every task was an issue, every change was a commit, every deploy was instant. It felt less like "building a website" and more like shipping a product — which, as a PM, is exactly the story I wanted my portfolio to tell.