Workshop Showcase · Hands-On Session
2-Hour Live Workshop · For Operators

The 4-Gate
Workflow Audit.

Audit · Risk Gate · Build · Hand Off One workflow from friction to validated pilot brief
01 / 10
Objective
One workflow. From friction to validated pilot brief.

Each participant applies the framework to one real workflow from their own job.

No theory. You leave with a risk-scored workflow, a governance scaffold, and a 30-day adoption tracker.

01
Audit
Identify 4–5 workflows. Score friction × feasibility × risk exposure.
02
Risk Gate
Pick the highest-ROI candidate. Design the kill switch.
03
Build
Draft prompts, guardrails, and telemetry in real time.
04
Hand Off
Board-ready case, 30-day tracker, vendor shortlist.
Ground Rule
Bring one workflow class. Use synthetic or anonymized data that mirrors your real schema. No real customer names, financial figures, proprietary code, or PII/PHI in the workshop room. For healthcare/pharma contexts, synthetic data is required. Work on it live. No theory decks.
02 / 10
The Problem
Many AI pilots struggle to reach production.
Failure Pattern
The "Bright Shiny" Trap
Team buys a tool, builds a demo, shows leadership. No workflow audit, no governance, no telemetry. The pilot works in a vacuum and collapses on contact with real data.
Observed across early-stage AI pilots
Root Cause
Missing Verification Layers
No kill switch. No confidence threshold. No human-in-the-loop gate. The system is trusted before it has earned trust.
Gaps typically surface after initial deployment
Workshop Antidote
Every participant builds a 3-layer governance scaffold before touching a prompt. The protocol forces verification.
03 / 10
Gate 1
Map your workflows. Score them honestly.
Exercise
Friction × Feasibility Matrix
Each participant lists 4–5 workflows. We score each on: How painful? How repetitive? How structured is the data?
Framework
The Friction-Feasibility-Risk Filter
Score friction × feasibility × risk exposure. We discard anything scoring high on risk for Gate 1.
Deliverable
Workflow Heatmap
A ranked list with scores. You leave knowing exactly which workflow to attack first. You also know which to avoid.
WorkflowFrictionFeasibilityRisk ExposureGate?
Competitive intel synthesisHighHighLowProceed
Invoice reconciliationHighMedMedProceed
Contract review & approvalHighLowHighBlock
Rubric: High Risk = Block. High Friction + High Feasibility + Low Risk = Proceed. Everything else = Flag for discussion.
04 / 10
Gate 2
Pick one candidate. Design the kill switch.
Exercise
Kill-Switch Protocol Draft
For your chosen workflow: define the exact condition that stops the AI and escalates to a human. No vague "review steps."
Framework
Red / Yellow / Green Gates
Red = human mandatory. Yellow = human if output validation fails. Green = auto-run for low-risk internal workflows, with scheduled human review. You set the thresholds.
Deliverable
Risk-Scored Pilot Blueprint
One-page spec: workflow, kill-switch conditions, owner, rollback plan. Ready to hand to a builder.
# Example kill-switch logic (conceptual sketch — participants draft their own)
# Production requires: error handling, retry logic, circuit breakers, idempotency keys, dead-letter queues.
# WARNING: Log metadata only. Output content stays in-process. Define retention with your DPO.
IF claim_type == "financial" OR schema_validation == "failed" # schema_validation = JSON schema + business rule check
THEN route_to_human(owner=cs_lead, sla=4h, fallback=halt_workflow, max_queue=10)
LOG trace_id, prompt_version, reason, output_metadata, timestamp, session_token_hash, model_version
# Hashing is pseudonymization, not anonymization. DPO review required.
ALERT webhook_url=<your-alerts-endpoint> # Route to your org's alert system. Verify data residency and DPA before cloud-hosted channels.
05 / 10
Gate 3
Build the governance scaffold.
Exercise
Prompt Anatomy Live Build
We deconstruct a production prompt into: System context, Task, Constraints, Output schema, Examples. Participants rewrite their own.
Framework
Guardrail Triple
Input validation (schema), Output validation (regex + semantic), Behavioral guard (refusal triggers). You test each layer.
Exercise
Telemetry Scaffold Design
What gets logged? Who reviews? What thresholds trigger alerts? Participants define their own observability floor. Template: log_event, alert_threshold, alert_destination, review_owner, retention_policy.
# Prompt skeleton participants customize
# WARNING: Do not enter real company names into cloud LLM APIs unless covered by a no-training, no-retention DPA.
# For healthcare/pharma: a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA) is required in addition to a DPA.
# NOTE: Prompt instructions are not enforcement. Production requires parser validation (Pydantic, Zod, jsonschema) with retry loop.
SYSTEM: You are a [workflow] assistant for [company].
TASK: [Specific action with constraints]
OUTPUT: JSON with fields: summary, action(complete/escalate/refuse), escalation_reason, verification_status(verified/unverified/needs_review), flags[], sources[]
GUARDRAIL: If verification_status == "needs_review", set action="escalate" and fill escalation_reason. JSON schema enforced programmatically, not via prompt.
EXAMPLE: [One shot in / out pair]
06 / 10
Gate 4
Build the case that gets the budget approved.
Exercise
Board-Ready Business Case
Problem, approach, ROI model, risk mitigation, 30-60-90 timeline. Participants fill a template using their real numbers.
Framework
Vendor Shortlist Matrix
Compare 3–5 tools on: cost, compliance, integration effort, support quality. No vendor bias. You score against your stack.
Deliverable
30-Day Adoption Tracker
Weekly milestones, owner assignments, exit criteria, rollback trigger. This is your project management scaffold.
Business Case Template (excerpt)
Current cost
40 hrs/month × €75/h
Pilot cost
€2K tooling + 16 hrs build
Projected
12 hrs/month + €400/mo
Payback
Month 3–4 (workshop model)
07 / 10
Governance
Verification layers are non-negotiable.
1
Kill Switch
Human approves before external action. Hard stop, not suggestion. Internal-only workflows may use scheduled review per your policy.
2
Telemetry
Log essential metadata (timestamp, model version, prompt version, error flag). Define sampling rate, retention policy, PII redaction rules, and review cadence before production.
3
Output Consistency Check
Run multiple samples. Flag significant divergence. Note: temperature-0 reduces but does not guarantee determinism across separate API calls. Use semantic similarity or a fixed seed when available. No unverified "best guess" in production.
Cautionary Example (Composite)
EU-regulated financial services pilot, 2024 (Composite)
An agent misclassified a risk flag. No output validation. No kill switch. Caught during routine review.

The fix: Output validation + mandatory human gate for risk classification. That protocol is what we practice in workshops.
08 / 10
Case Study (Composite)
How one team redesigned their workflow.
Context
Competitive Intelligence Pipeline
Series B SaaS, 8 markets. Analysts manually compiled competitor pricing and positioning. Stale by Wednesday. Team of 3 spending 40h/month.
B2B SaaS · EU · 6-month measurement
The Audit (Gate 1)
4 Workflows Mapped
Comp intel scored highest on friction and feasibility. Pricing monitoring scored lowest. The team picked comp intel for the pilot.
Friction-Feasibility-Risk Filter applied live
The Build (Gates 2–3)
Kill Switch + Prompt + Telemetry
Red gate for unverified claims. Yellow gate if validation flagged uncertainty. Telemetry logged to a data store configured for audit logging.
Stack is illustrative; outputs are vendor-agnostic
The Outcome (Gate 4)
Leadership Approved the Pilot
Business case projected payback by Month 3–4. 30-day tracker kept the team on course. Significant workload reduction measured over 6 months. Illustrative outcome only; actual results depend on implementation and independent review.
Hypothetical compliance outcome · For discussion only
09 / 10
How I Work
A 2-hour sprint from friction to validated pilot brief.

I facilitate this workshop for operations leads, PMs, and leadership teams with direct workflow ownership. Every participant leaves with a scored workflow, a kill-switch protocol, and a 30-day adoption tracker. No theory. All action.

Alex Guyenne
AI Solutions Consultant · Workshops · Offsites · Board Prep
Disclaimer

Workshop outputs are facilitation artifacts (scored workflows, governance sketches, adoption trackers). They are not legal, regulatory, compliance, or professional advice. Production deployment requires qualified legal, compliance, and engineering review. "Workshop model" refers to internal scoring during the session, not certification by any external auditor or regulator.

10 / 10