The hardest part of automation for most teams is not the build. It is agreeing which work to automate first. Everyone has a different pet task, nobody has measured how long anything takes, and the conversation keeps getting pushed to next quarter. The half-day planning workshop fixes that. In one remote session, your team maps its manual work and leaves with its first three automations picked and written down.
The workshop costs $2,800, runs remotely, and is sold on its own. This post covers how the session runs, what you leave with, how to prepare, and when it is the right first step. Prices were last reviewed on October 29, 2026.
Who the workshop is for
It suits teams of roughly 4 to 30 people where several people do repeat work and opinions differ on what to fix. Office managers, practice owners, team leads and operations staff get the most out of it, because they are the ones who know where the time goes.
It is a good fit when you want your team involved in the decision, not just handed a plan. People accept automation more readily when they picked the task themselves.
How the session runs
The workshop is about four hours on a video call, with short breaks. It follows the same structure every time.
- 1Warm-up, 20 minutes. Everyone lists the tasks they repeat every week, with a rough count of how often.
- 2Mapping, 75 minutes. We pick the eight to twelve biggest tasks and walk through each one: where it starts, which tools it touches, who approves what, and where it waits.
- 3Break.
- 4Scoring, 45 minutes. Each task gets a score for hours spent, error cost, how fixed the steps are, and how sensitive the data is.
- 5Fit check, 40 minutes. For the top tasks, we decide together whether each needs a simple workflow, an AI agent, a custom tool, or a process change with no software at all.
- 6Picking three, 30 minutes. The team agrees its first three automations, in order, with an owner for each.
- 7Wrap-up, 15 minutes. Next steps, open questions and who needs to approve what.
What you leave with
Within two business days of the session you get a short written summary with:
- The full list of tasks the team raised, with the hours each one takes.
- The scoring table, so you can see why the top three won.
- A one-page brief for each of the three picks: the trigger, the steps, the tools, the review points, and what done looks like.
- Rough price bands for each pick, using the floors on our pricing page.
The briefs are written so any builder can quote from them. You are free to take them anywhere.
Tell us who would attend and we'll suggest a date and what to prepare.
How it differs from the readiness assessment
The workshop and the readiness assessment both help you decide what to automate, but they work differently.
| What | Workshop | Readiness assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2,800 | $3,199 |
| Length | Half a day, remote | Two weeks |
| Who does the mapping | Your team, guided live | We do it, with interviews |
| Systems checked | From what the team describes | Hands-on, with read-only access |
| Ends with | Three picks and briefs | Ranked list and a fixed quote |
| Credited to the build | No | Yes, in full |
Pick the workshop when the main problem is agreement inside the team. Pick the assessment when you want someone to look at the systems and price the build properly.
Why there is no build credit
The workshop is priced as a standalone session, and its outcome is a team decision, not a quote. Some teams build with us afterwards, some build with their own staff, and some take the briefs to another firm. Keeping it separate means the price stays lower and nobody feels pushed toward a build.
How to prepare
Ask everyone who joins to keep a simple tally for one week before the session: each time they do a repeat task, a tick next to its name. That one week of counts makes the scoring far more honest than guesses on the day. Also have someone ready to share their screen if a tool needs to be shown.
Keep the group small enough to talk. Five to eight people is ideal. Owners should attend at least the last hour, when the three picks are agreed.
What it costs and how you pay
The workshop is $2,800. That falls in the $1,000 to under $3,000 band of our payment schedule, so it is paid half when you book and half after the session. The full rules are in how automation pricing and payment work. There is no refund once the session has run, which is why the first half is due at booking: it holds the date.
Common questions
Can we run it in person? The workshop is remote only. That keeps the price down and makes it easy for staff in different locations to join.
Can we do it with just the owner? You can, but most of the value comes from the people doing the work. An owner alone usually knows the outcome they want but not where the hours go.
What if we pick the wrong three? The scoring table is there to prevent that. If a pick turns out to be harder than expected, the next one on the list is already scored and ready.
After the workshop
Most teams start with the first pick within a month. If the first pick is a single AI job, our AI agent cost guide shows what it costs to build. If you want us to build it, the brief from the session is enough for a fixed quote.
To book a date, tell us about your team in the form below. We reply within one business day with open dates. You work directly with Shariq, the founder, who runs every session.
