Generative AI for Workplace Productivity

Build a careful, useful assistant workflow for a fictional community events desk. Learn to write task briefs, check evidence, audit spreadsheet calculations, document visual provenance, and keep decisions with people.

What you'll be able to do

  • Turn an ambiguous request into a reviewable task brief
  • Separate supported facts from plausible inventions
  • Verify simple spreadsheet results independently
  • Produce an original visual brief with a provenance record
  • Design a no-code workflow that stops for human approval
  • Deliver a tested Cedar Desk operating dossier

Before you start

  • Comfort editing a document and a small spreadsheet
  • A browser and a local notes app; an AI account is optional
  • Use only the synthetic examples supplied in the lessons

The curriculum

  1. Choose a Small, Helpful Task — Free preview

    Define what an assistant may draft, what it must not decide, and how a person checks the result.

  2. Write a Reviewable Brief — Free preview

    Specify evidence, output fields, and uncertainty handling.

  3. Build a Source Ledger — Sign-in access

    Trace factual statements to evidence and learn when to leave an answer unresolved.

  4. Check the Numbers Yourself — Sign-in access

    Analyze a small synthetic workbook with explicit units, denominators, and independent calculations.

  5. Design Visuals with a Record — Free preview

    Create original visual briefs and document provenance.

  6. Map a Workflow That Stops — Sign-in access

    Design validation, duplicate handling, and approval gates.

  7. Test the Uncomfortable Cases — Sign-in access

    Build a small test set that checks boundaries and calculations, not just polished happy-path output.

  8. Deliver the Cedar Desk Dossier — Sign-in access

    Assemble a complete manual operating pack and demonstrate a safe end-to-end intake review.

Cedar Desk

Design an internal intake helper for a fictional community events team. It may classify synthetic requests and draft replies, but it cannot book venues, promise availability, publish media, or send messages.

Deliverables

  • Task charter and data boundary
  • Versioned prompt brief and source ledger
  • Synthetic event workbook with checked formulas
  • Original visual brief and provenance note
  • Approval workflow and six-case test record
  • Manual operating dossier

Review your work

  • No real personal information or credentials are used
  • All invented event facts are clearly marked synthetic
  • Missing dates or approval evidence block release
  • Calculation results can be reproduced without an AI tool
  • A named role reviews every external-facing draft