The First Agent

Choose one useful job, a committed owner, and a definition of done.

Revival Group / Edited field-guide edition

Choose something the team can evaluate

The first build should make its purpose easy to see. Choose a recurring task with a visible before-and-after, a person who wants to improve it, and limited consequences when a draft is wrong.

Start with the task, not a plan to automate a department. Identify its inputs, expected output, handoffs, exceptions, and who will check the result.

Write down done before building

Agree on an acceptable result with the person whose work changes. Specify the quality checks, the kinds of inputs the task covers, and what happens when an input falls outside that scope.

Choose a review date and a way to compare the trial with the current process. Include time spent checking and correcting. A faster first draft is useful only when the complete job improves.

Expect to learn from real work

A real workflow has exceptions a demo may not expose. Use a controlled trial and collect examples of what needed correction. Let the team report problems without treating each correction as a failure of the people using it.

Keep the old process available while you learn. Pause the trial when the output crosses a defined quality or risk boundary. A target date is a planning decision, not a universal promise about how quickly every AI build should work.

Hand it to an owner, not an inbox

Before expanding, name the person responsible for the task, the instructions, and the exception path. Show them how to review the result, update the instructions, and stop the process.

Use what the first task teaches you to choose the second. The goal is not to count agents or activated accounts. It is to complete a useful piece of work with clear responsibility and a result the team can trust.

Put it into practice

Map one task with the people doing it. Use the free Floor Walk worksheet, then decide what should change.

Use the Floor Walk worksheet

Edited field-guide adaptation of Shop Manual 07: The First Agent.

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