Make it Faster! Or: Stumbling upon huge improvements while reducing human error surface

I've been using LinkedIn Secret Weapon for networking for weeks, and it's been great. It's awesome to use a tool I built to speed up my own daily workflow.

Today I was sending my connection requests using my templates, firing them off with my keyboard shortcuts. But I might have been doing it on a JetBlue flight, and my "Even More Space" seat (they're not kidding about that, btw!) may have come with free alcoholic beverages 🍷. Maybe. And so I may have accidentally done some of the workflow steps out of order. The correct flow looks like this:

1. Click connect (Opt+C)

2. Click "Add Note" (Opt+N)

3. Copy the filled template (Opt+V)

4. Paste the template into the "Add Note" dialog (Cmd+V)

5. Sending the message (Opt+Shift+S)

But sometimes I'd do this:

1. Click connect

2. Click "Add Note"

3. Paste the previous template (because I didn't copy afresh after switching tabs/profiles)

4. Sending the message with the wrong person's name

I had always found the workflow I had originally set up to be slightly cumbersome. Because the V key is between the C and N keys, sometimes I would "connect, copy, add note, paste" to go with the arrangement of the keys. But sometimes I would "connect, add note, copy, paste" because it more closely follows the actual flow of the actions you're taking. The latter also has the benefit of using Cmd+V immediately after Opt+V. Which path I took was up to whatever my fingers felt like doing at the moment. Or sometimes I'd go the "copy before add-note" route because the "connect" button was taking too long to work.

So there was room for human error, and room for speeding up and clarifying the workflow. The human error problem led me to have Claude implement a fix:

Let's implement a feature:

1. When the "click 'add note'" func runs, clicking add note will open a modal

2. Once the modal is open... (once getShadowRoot()?.querySelector('textarea#custom-message') returns an element)

3. Insert the parsed template into the text field

It was a pretty easy implementation. Querying the modal's textarea was simpler than clicking through the profile page's button soup, since the modal's shadowRoot still uses stable selectors – no unstable className hashes. Yet. But who knows, #custom-message could disappear anytime.

As I mentioned, I chose to implement this feature to get rid of the room for human error. I hadn't thought about the UX improvement I mentioned above, but once I started using it, it made it a heck of a lot faster! The new actions are:

1. Click connect (Opt+C)

2. Click "Add note" to open the modal and insert the filled template (Opt+V)

3. Send! (Opt+Shift+S)

Hidden benefit! Big deal! 🎉

Ultimate takeaway: Don't select your seat. Let them give you a seat close to boarding. The only seats left will probably be the really good ones.