The NumbersYou
The night before it's due, you hunt the numbers across dashboards, spreadsheets, and old threads.
Case Study 05 / 09
Client Reporting
Reporting sat inside delivery, one of the four workflows I removed myself from, and it was the chore I resented most. The numbers existed all along; the report was just me, copying them into a doc the night before it was due. Now the report compiles itself and writes the first draft of its own story. I read it, edit it, and sign it.
06 Steps Before
02 Stay Yours
01The Workflow, BeforeEvery badge is you
The AssemblyYou
You paste screenshots into a doc and resize them until it looks intentional.
The StoryYou
You write "what this means" from memory of a month you barely remember.
The FlagsYou
Anything that looks off gets smoothed over, because there's no time left to chase it.
The ReadYou
You proofread your own report half-asleep and hope the client skims.
The SendYou
It goes out late, with an apology drafted into the first line, and next month the whole thing repeats.
02The Same Workflow, Running on AgentsSame steps, new owners
The NumbersAgent
The numbers pull themselves from where they already live: the dashboards, the spreadsheets, the threads you used to hunt through the night before.
The AssemblyAgent
The report assembles in the same format every month, every section where it belongs.
The StoryAgent
A first draft of the story gets written: what moved, what stalled, what's next.
The FlagsAgent
Anything off gets flagged for your eyes before the client's.
The ReadYou
The draft waits for you, and you read it the way the client will.
The Hand-Off · You stop being the author and start being the editor
The SendYou
You make your edits, sign it, and send it under your name.
03The System MapYou sit outside the loop
Collector
Assembler
Narrator
Flagger
The Report
Edits and Signature
YouOutside the loop
04The ArtifactsWhat the report produces
The Monthly Report01 / 02
The Flag List02 / 02
moved the wrong way this month. How to say it is your call.
05What Stays Yours
-
You
The signature. Every report goes out under your name, read by you first.
-
You
The bad news. When a number is ugly, how it gets said is a human call.
-
You
The standard. The machine fills the format. You decide what the client actually needs to hear.
06The Verdict FrameWhat a session would call this
In a session, this workflow gets one of three verdicts: automate it now, fix it manually first, or leave it alone.
Reporting is the cleanest "automate it now" in this library: same format, same cadence, and the assembly never needed your judgment. But if the numbers live in screenshots and memory, the verdict is "fix it manually first", because a report built on guesses is just bad news on a schedule. And if the monthly report is your only steady touchpoint with a client, sometimes the chore is the relationship. I'd think hard before automating that one.
Sixty minutes. The spec for this, written live.
Book the session