Module 1.3: First Tasks

Reference Guide

• Time to Complete: 30-40 minutes
• Prerequisites: Module 1.2 complete; visual workspace set up

Start this lesson interactively: Type /start 1 3 in the Codex app to work through all five scenarios hands-on.

Overview

This is where the real PM work begins. You’ll work through five realistic scenarios that show how Codex reads, writes, analyzes, and transforms your work — saving roughly 3-4 hours per week once these become habit.

Key takeaway: The core pattern is always the same — reference the files you want (@filename), then tell Codex what to do with them (summarize, analyze, extract, organize, transform).

The Core Pattern: @ File References

Use @ to point Codex at a specific file or folder, then describe the task. For example:

Organize the action items from @product-sync-notes.md by owner

You can reference multiple files at once, or an entire folder, and Codex will work across all of them.

Scenario 1 — End-of-Day Meeting Processing

The situation: You’ve had back-to-back meetings and your notes are a mess — typos, fragments, shorthand. Your team needs action items before they log off.

What Codex does: Reads the messy notes, extracts every action item, organizes them by owner, adds priority and due dates, and produces a clean formatted table.

Time saved: 30-45 minutes down to about 2 minutes.

Scenario 2 — User Research Synthesis

The situation: You’ve completed eight user interviews, each a multi-page transcript. You need common pain points and feature requests.

What Codex does: Reads an entire folder of transcripts at once and produces a synthesis document with:

• Top pain points, with a frequency count (mentioned by 3+ users)
• Supporting direct quotes
• Feature requests by priority
• Recommended next steps

Key technique: Codex can analyze a whole folder of files in one pass — you don’t reference each file individually. Try it with:

Analyze all the user interviews in @user-interviews and create a summary document highlighting the overall findings and themes

Time saved: 2-3 hours down to about 5 minutes.

Scenario 3 — Communication Transformation with Reusable Styles

The situation: You need to share the same research findings three ways — a casual Slack update, a strategic executive email, and a comprehensive doc.

The PM superpower: Create reusable communication styles once, then apply them forever. Each style file defines format rules, tone, and an example of good output. Then you transform any content through them:

Based on the communication styles in @communication-styles, create three messages about @user-research-synthesis.md and combine them into one document

Common styles worth building over time: Executive Briefing, User Story, Linear/Jira Issue, Weekly Update, Release Notes, PRD Section, Slack Announcement, Stakeholder Email.

Time saved: 30-45 minutes per communication down to about 2 minutes.

Scenario 4 — Design Feedback with Images

Codex can analyze images you paste into the conversation — design mockups, screenshots, charts, whiteboard photos, error messages, and more.

In the Codex app you can paste, drag, or attach images straight into the message box.

The workflow:

1. Copy an image to your clipboard (screenshot with Cmd+Shift+4 on Mac or Win+Shift+S on Windows, or copy from Figma/a browser).
2. In Codex, paste it (Cmd+V / Ctrl+V) — or drag the image file into the message box. The image appears in the conversation.
3. Ask Codex to analyze it — for example, request UX feedback, technical challenges, accessibility concerns, and missing elements in a user flow.

Use cases: design reviews, competitive analysis of competitor screenshots, bug reports from error screenshots, chart/data analysis, and capturing whiteboards from meetings.

Scenario 5 — Web Search for Solutions

Codex can search the live web to find proven design patterns, benchmarks, and best practices, then connect them back to your own research. For example:

Search the web for design solutions to address what we found in @user-research-synthesis.md

Codex reads the synthesis, understands the pain points, and returns specific patterns (progressive disclosure, empty-state design, template galleries, onboarding flows) with real-world examples and a recommendation for TaskFlow.

Use cases: competitive intelligence, industry benchmarks, design patterns, market trends, technical implementation examples.

Time saved: 30-45 minutes of manual research down to about 2 minutes.

What’s Next

Next up is Module 1.4: Agents — the game-changer. You’ll learn to clone Codex and run many tasks in parallel, processing ten meeting notes or researching five competitors simultaneously.

Start it by typing /start 1 4 in the Codex app, or read the reference guide:

Go to Module 1.4: Agents →