Automating Without Overwhelming Yourself 2 of 6 · 2:00–2:30
2 · 2:00–2:30 · interactive

Your projects through IDEA

Your eleven client projects come in three shapes. Each team walks its own project through IDEA and leaves with its smallest useful unit.

Your projects come in three shapes

4 min

What the 11 proposals have in common

9 of 11say the reliable outcome is workflow analysis, design concepts, working prompts and a roadmap. A prototype only if skills allow.
8 of 11are open to simpler or non-AI approaches.
7 of 11raise cost and upkeep.
7 of 11involve sensitive data or an NDA.

Every project has the same anatomy:

  1. Something arrives
  2. Structured bits get pulled out
  3. A rule or a person decides
  4. A record gets written
  5. Someone needs to notice when it silently stops working

Find your project

Full detail for every project (opens in a new tab)

The smallest useful unit is a starting point to argue with, not an assignment.

Speaker notes

Pacing for the 30 minutes.

  • 2:00–2:04 · This section. Read the four numbers. Point at each shape. Every team finds its card.
  • 2:04–2:06 · IDEA recap with the sign-in sheet example. They saw it at the end of page 1; do not reteach.
  • 2:06–2:07 · "How we'll run it" (next section). Then open the walkthrough.
  • 2:07–2:12 · Identify. 2:12–2:17 · Document. 2:17–2:23 · Experiment. 2:23–2:28 · Adjust.
  • 2:28–2:30 · Lightning round: each team says its smallest useful unit in one sentence.

The pitch: nine of eleven clients want analysis, working prompts and a roadmap, and eight are open to non-AI answers. So the first skill is deciding what to automate, not building. Some of the smallest units need no AI at all, for example Zell and Marsal.

Each shape gets a live demo at 2:45: Demo 1 is intake, Demo 2 is the pile, Demo 3 is the sheets.

The IDEA framework

2 min

IDEA is not a building plan. It is a thinking tool.

Identify

  • What are you trying to accomplish?
  • The goal is not automation. The goal is the desired outcome.
  • What does "done" look like?

Document

  • Break the task into building blocks: data source, transformation, output.
  • What's fixed? What varies?

Experiment

  • Choose one component to test.
  • Start with the smallest workable version.
  • See how it performs in your real context.

Adjust

  • What could break if something changes?
  • Who else is affected?
  • What ongoing maintenance is required?

Example: the Monday attendance email

  1. Pull data from a sign-in sheet
  2. Copy into an email and format it
  3. Send it every Monday
  4. About 20 minutes a week
Run the example through IDEA
Identify
The goal is not "automate the attendance email." That is a solution. The goal: the team gets an accurate, timely summary every week without me assembling it. Trigger: the start of a new week. Done means a formatted email in inboxes by Monday at 10 AM.
Document
Source: the sign-in sheet. Transformation: pull the numbers, maybe calculate percentages. Output: the email. Fixed: format, recipients, structure. Varies: the numbers, the date, who was absent.
Experiment
Auto-fill a template with this week's numbers and still send it by hand. Test one piece and see if it works.
Adjust
What if someone changes the sign-in sheet? What if a new person joins the team? How would I know something went wrong?

Some tasks are fine the way they are. That is a valid outcome.

Speaker notes

Page 1 already covered IDEA, so spend one minute here. Use the example as the model answer for the walkthrough.

Land on Experiment: "start with the smallest workable version." That is today's thesis. The fixed parts are what you template; the parts that vary are what the system has to handle.

How we'll run it

1 min
  1. Sit with your client team.
  2. Pick your project. No project yet? Use your own workflow.
  3. About 5 minutes per step: Identify, Document, Experiment, Adjust.
  4. Answer in the page or on paper.
  5. I call on two or three teams per step.

Goal: every team leaves with its smallest useful unit named in one sentence.

Speaker notes

Say this before opening the walkthrough. Keep a visible clock. Call on different teams each step so all three shapes get heard.

Walk your project through IDEA

23 min

    Step 1 of 4 · Identify

    Speaker notes

    Pick "Your own workflow" to show how it works: the example answers are the sign-in sheet. Then switch to a real project, for example Zell.

    Open an example only after teams have written something. Answers save in this browser, separately for each project.

    Identify: listen for "automate X." Push back: that is a solution, not a goal. What does the client want?

    Experiment is the one that matters. Every team says its unit in one sentence. Ask: does this one need AI at all?

    Adjust: if time is short, keep it brief. It comes back at the end of the hands-on, when their build hits the planted problems.

    Your notes

    saves as you type

    Type as you go. It saves in this browser. The My notes button (bottom right) downloads everything from every page as one file.

    Site: tinalasisi.github.io/automating-without-overwhelming-yourself · Source on GitHub