Transcripts
1. Lesson 1 Introduction: Hi, I'm Moy, and I'm a software projects director in the life sciences Industry. And for the last
four or five years, I've been teaching on
a Skillshare about what it takes to be a
great project manager. If you see my other classes, then you'll know I'm
not one that's just about theory and for
the practical stuff, the things that you can use every single day to
make a difference. And today's class,
it's exactly that, but actually a little bit
different because today, I'm going to show you
something that I've actually built for myself, something that I use
every single day. And honestly, when I first
started to put this together, I wasn't actually
sure it was really going to give me the
value I was looking for, but it did, and I think
it might change the way you think about AI tools
moving forward forever. So let me start with a question. How many of you tried using AI tools, for example, HachiPTs, cord Geminis, et cetera, and found it genuinely useful, but also at the same time,
a little bit frustrating. You ask it something,
it gives you answers. You ask it again, it
gives you answers again, but every single time, it's started from scratch from
a blank sheet of paper. It doesn't know you. It
doesn't know your project. It doesn't know your
ways of working. Every conversation
is a blank page. Now, what if it
didn't have to be? What I'm going to show you today is the difference between a prompt and a skill
prompt is a question. You type something in, I responds and gives you an
answer, and that's that. A skill is different. A skill is a set of
instructions that you give to the AI that defines who it is, what it thinks, and
how it responds to you in the context
of how you set it. You build it once,
and then every time you open it, it's
already briefed. It knows your project and
knows your framework. It already knows how to help you and what your
concerns might be. For project managers, I think
this is genuinely exciting because we're not just building a tool that asks questions. We're building a
thinking partner. And that's what this
class is about. By the end of it, you'll
build your own PM Assistant tool that
you can start using every single day to
start your mornings with clarity and end them
with a sense of control.
2. Lesson 2 The Framework: Before we build anything, we need to give the skill a framework to work from because this is
really important. The AI is only as good as
the tools that you give it. If you've seen my
spinning place classes, then you'll know
what's coming up. For those that haven't, then
here is a quick prilot. The spinning plate
model says that being a great project manager
isn't about going specifically deep on
individual topics. It's about being able to manage multiple aspects of the
project all at the same time, whether that's risk, change, budgets, leadership,
project tracking, the lot. The analogy is quite simple. You're the project
manager. Try to keep all those plates spinning. And not necessarily spinning
all of them yourself, but you need to know
every single day that those plates are
spinning because the plate that wobbles
that you don't notice is the one that's
going to end up on the floor. Now, I've been using
this model for years, and when I started
to think about using an AI tool to help
me in my day to day, it was the obvious
foundation to start from. The AI would hold the framework, and I just have
the conversation. Now, there are 12 plates in
total as part of the model, and we'll take a look at each one of them as we
build out the skill. But if you want a particularly
deep dive in any of them, then check out the
spinning plates class, which is one of the
first ones that I did. For now, though,
let's start building.
3. Lesson 3 Building the skill: Right, I'm going to switch
to my screen now and we're going to focus on
building this skill together. So I'm using claude.ai for this. You can find a link in
the class resources for the actual tool
that I'm using. It's free to get started, and you don't actually
need any technical setup. Now, if you use
any other AI tool, and the same approach applies, you're just looking
for somewhere to put your instructions before
the conversation starts. And this is the same whether
you're using Chachi PT, Gemini, or any other
kind of AI tooling. So here in Claude, we're
in the co working section, and we're in the projects area. And what I'm going to do is open a new project here on
the right hand side. Now projects let you
set instructions that run in every conversation you
have within that project. That's where the
skill actually lives. Think of it as a briefing
document for the AI that it reads before they walk into the room for every
conversation you're having. And for the purpose of this, we're going to create
a brand new project that we're going to
start from scratch, and we're going to
give it a name. So our brand new PM
Assistant and in this, we've got the
instructions piece. So you could create projects and the instructions
build over time. But what we're actually
going to do is give it more detailed
specific expectations of how I want it to operate, and we're going to talk
through that together. So I've got my skill section actually here open in obsidian, and I'm actually
going to walk through each area of this before I paste it into our
instruction set, because understanding
what each piece does with the AI is actually the
whole point of this class. Let's start with identity. Now, this is the most
important piece, and it's the one that
often people skip. We're not asking Claude
remember a question here. We're telling you
who it actually is. So let's read through some of
this with me for a second. You are a senior project management
accountability partner. You know the spinning
plates model, the idea that a great PM
must keep all key areas of project moving
simultaneously, not just the loudest one. You are not a cheerleader. You are not a task list. You are the trusted colleague who always has the PM's back. That last line matters. You're not just a cheerleader, not a task list, the
trusted colleague. That's the tone I
want. That's the one I want in the room with
me every single day. Then there's two
triggers, two things I can say to activate it. There's the morning check in, which is something they'll
want to start every day with. And then there's
also the end of day to close it. That's it. Just two words each
for the skill. Remember, this is just a
simple thing we're building, and the skill then
does the rest. So let's move on to Section two, which is the spinning
plates model. Here's the framework,
all 12 plates each with a daily
question attached. So let's just step briefly
through each of these. So the skill has risk where
the daily question is, Am I ahead of risks or
am I reacting to them? Is going to ask me about change. Is there any change
happening that needs managing at that point in time? It's going to ask
me about roles and accountability
within the project. Are we sure that everyone
knows what they're doing? Is there something
to address there? It's going to ask
me about tracking. Do I know where we
are against the plan? It's going to ask
me if there are any escalations on the project. Are there any flags in the projects that I
need to raise or chase? It's going to ask me
about stakeholders. Really important category, I everyone who matters
informed and engaged? It's going to ask
me about things like process and documentation. Are there any documentation
gaps building up, anything I need to
focus on there? He's going to ask me
about my own leadership. Am I serving the team today
or am I creating friction? And then it's going
to move on to some of the fundamentals like
budget and finance. Is there spending control? Is there things that I need
to be thinking about there? Really really important
success in KPI measures. Do I know how we're
measuring success on the project and what do those
KPIs currently look like? It's going to ask
me about reporting. Are my reports up to date and clear? Do they
need addressing? Then finally, for
those that are doing slightly bigger projects
with extended life cycles, are there any post
delivery obligations that need to keep
moving forward? Now your project may
have more plates that need to go in here or less, and you can add
them, obviously to the skill as you built it. So what I'm doing
here is giving the AI a complete picture of what PM needs to be thinking
about every single day. It knows the model
as well as you do. So again, we'll paste this section in to
the instruction set. What built into the skill
here are two sections talking about the morning check in and the end of the day. So morning check in,
fairly straightforward. The trigger is going
to be morning check in or start my day, and it's going to have
multiple steps to it. Five steps structured takes about 5 minutes. Sprint focus. What is the one
outcome you're driving towards this week?
The Domino question. What's the single task they've done today unblocks the most? We're then going to do
a spinning plates scan. Remember, the AIA is
going to have a memory here and be able to remember
the status of each one. So it's going to ask
you a quick green, yellow red on each of the 12. We're then going to talk about
LMD, leverage, manage, do. What should I be doing myself, managing that other people are doing or just completely handing off and delegating to others? It's going to ask me specifically about
the critical path. Is anyone or anything
at risk today? And then it's going to close
with one clear sentence. It's going to tell me
today what my focus is, what my lead domino area is, and it's going to tell
me what to watch. This is how I want
to start each day. Then at the end
of the day, we've got another part of
the instruction set here where there's three simple questions.
What's move today? What's at risk for tomorrow, and if tomorrow goes sideways, then what's the one thing
that still has to happen? Now that last question is the
one I want to come back to most because on a busy
project, tomorrow, we'll go sideways sometimes, and knowing you answer that
question before it does, then that's control that
you're looking for. And then we end with
the tag line in here. Remember, you don't have
to spin them all yourself, but you do have to know
that they're spinning. That's the important
part. And that's it. That's the instruction set
that I'm going to paste into the clawed instructions as part of the project
that we're building. So let me copy these now. I now I'm switching
back to this starting a new project in Claude, and I'm going to paste in
that whole instruction set. Now the problem
with this screen, which is why I was
showing you in obsidian, is quite a small screen. But this is now everything
we've just talked through pasted in to the instruction
set. So that's it. Everything pasted in to
the instruction set. I'm not going to tell you where I want things to be saved. That can be done separately. I'm not going to
drop any files in at this point on. I do
have a memory on. That's really important
because I want it to remember the conversations, and we're going to
create this project. So now we've got our brand new PM assistant here at the top. So that's the skill built. Now let me show you
what it actually does.
4. Lesson 4 Watching it work: Okay, so this is now a fresh conversation
within this project, our brand new PM Assistant. And as you can see
here on the right, here's the instruction
set, which I can see. I remember I can edit this
at any point in time, if I wanted to add or remove
various different elements, and you can see the full
kind of breakdown here of what we pasted in
previously, which is good. So fresh conversation in flight
instructions are all set. The skill is ready. I'm not going to
explain anything in particular to the PM assistant
at this point in time. I'm just going to
type in two words and get things moving. So let's go with morning, check in and it's gone off. It's having it first think
about what this project is. So it's gone away, round
the instruction set, and it's ready to work. So look what it's doing. It's not just answering
a simple question. It's now running the
structured process with our sprint focus first. So let me start giving it
some real answers here. What's the one outcome you're
driving towards this week? Uh need to clarify the scope requires requirements for this project. So let's
say we're doing that. That's the one outcome that
we're going to try and drive to this week. So he's got it. It's
clarifying the scope. He knows that and it's
got a tone to this. That's a foundational piece that unblocks everything else. Yes, absolutely,
really, really good. And then he asked
me at Lee Domino. So what is the single
task they've completed just today unblocks most
of the rest for this week. So let's carry on this theme
of scope requirements. So need to agree with senior product manager
what the scope, what the scope is, and when the documents will be complete. So that's today's task, let's say, as a project manager, got that work to be done. So again, given the
instructions there. So now it knows that. It's got
that logged in its memory. And now this is the
spinning plates question. So now it's going to go through each of the spinning plates. Now obviously, this is
just a demo project that we're going to kind
of step our way through. But this could be a
huge project with lots and lots of tasks,
lots of things happening, and it's really important
to go back through the spinning plates scan with
the AI on a regular basis. So let's walk through
these pretty fast. We'll start with
risk. I'll just go risk dash low risks at
the moment, the scope. Mainly green. We're
going to go for change. Is anything changing?
It's change happening that needs managing. I'm going to go with
scope is reduced. Then we'll impact
choice of manufacturer. So again, I'm just
putting that in there. We've got roles and
accountability. What I'm going to
say here is that need to bring in a
new product owner. Amber will need work next week. Again, just giving
it a bit of context. Tracking will go all on track. All good. Escalations not today, but if scope reduction, actually, no, let
me do something. So escalations, what
I'm going to say here is a budget cut budget cut from last week needs escalating
in my weekly report. So I'm going to put that
in the stakeholders. Is everyone who matters
informed and engaged? Yes, everyone engaged or good. So we're going to do
that, processing docs. Amber as a I got
processing docs, Amber as requirements document
due this week. Leadership. Now, leadership is
really important to me. This is, Am I serving the team
today or crating friction? Doing well, but product
manager conversation is key. Is key. Also want to then lead with a clear message
for the project team. Based on the outcome, we'll need it to be positive irrespective
of scope change. And then we've got
budget. This is red, budget cut from last week. So flagging that in there, and then success
and KBIs all good. Reporting report due tomorrow, an extended life cycle. Nothing due. What to do say
early stages of projects. Nothing to focus on.
Okay. So, that's it. I've done a quick
answer to all 12. Remember, this is the
first time I'm doing this. So it's building up a memory
that it'll use moving forward as it has those
conversations moving forward. So here here's Good scan.
Here's what I'm seeing. And it's giving me basically interpreting my language with
that green, Amber and red. Obviously, it said the
budget was the problem cut last week, N
active management. And, you know, some of those Ambers is saying where there's things
that needs to be done. Scope decision will
cascade to manufacture a new PO needed plan for
next week. It knows that. So three plates need your
attention today, budget, escalations and docs, and
they're all connected to that PM conversation
and tomorrow's report. Then asking me that step four that we've got in
the morning check in. Let's divide and conquer. Look at leverage, manage, do. What should you be doing
yourself only you can own it. So I'm going to say,
I need to I need to speak with the product manager
today. Has to be done. First thing, get the
hard conversation. Conversation out of the way. I need the finance
business partner to, uh, clarify any other
budget impacts. Chase this today,
and then leverage. I'm going to get quality rep to stay on top of
the requirements, Doc, after my meeting
with the product manager. So these are things
that are currently in my mind on the project.
There's things I can do. There's things that I need to make sure I'm moving forward. And then some things like the last one where
on is in place. I just want the quality rep to make sure that drives forward. I don't need to do that myself. So again, just telling this project within the
skill where things are. So yeah, clean LMD, that sequencing is right, the PM conversation
unlocks, everything else. So it's interpreting kind of my concerns which I've
talked about and saying, so do PM conversation, first thing, hard conversation, get it done, manage chase the finance business part with full budget impact picture, and then that quality rep owns
the requirements document. Step five, this is, again, the last part of the
morning check in. One last check. Is
anyone or anything on the critical
path at risk today? Specifically, and again, it's interpreted what
I've already put in. Is the product manager available and confirmed
for this morning? And is there any chance
the scope conversation gets kicked till
later this week? Yes, it is. It is a risk E the
product manager. They have a busy schedule. I need to get on I call
with them within the hour. It is my soul my sole focus. So again, just re emphasizing. And what's happening here with this dialogue is it's compounding in me as
a project manager, the area that I
need to focus on. I'm not going to
get distracted now. So understood that's the
one thing right now. Today's focus, get the
Pm on a call within the hour and land the
scope conversation. So your lead Domino
is that conversation. Scope clarity unlocks the
manufacturer decision, gives the quality rep what they need for the
requirements doc and shapes the message
that you take to the team. Everything else waits until
you have that outcome. The watch for today, the budget needs to be in
tomorrow's report with the escalation clearly framed and the requirements
doc deadline this week. So after the PM call,
brief the quality rep, chase the finance BP, then you'll have
everything you need to write strong report tomorrow. Go make that call now. Good luck. You've got this. So again, if you think about that instruction set
that we had at the very, very beginning where we wanted to make sure they're
not a cheerleader, they're not after
just the task list. They're a trusted colleague
who always has the PMs bank. Grounding them, fusing them, calling out those
wobby plates early, and helping them start on
end each day with clarity. So it's the end of the day now. We're just going to say wrap up. And again, we gave it a few bits of language
that we can use, but this is the end of the
day call that I'm making. So end of day three
quick questions that the AI now project accountability partner
is actually asking me. So the first one is
what move today? Any wins, progress or
completions big or small? So let's tell it ly though. So let's go finally agreed. With the with the PM, PM very happy, only one minor change
that needs communicating. So that was really good.
So that was massive. Scope fanny read. Brilliant. So what's a risk for tomorrow? Any plate showing yellow or red as you head
into the evening. Still the budget to be resolved. Finance business
partner is chasing and will update
me first thing so that I can get it
into my report. So again, it's come back. That's in motion.
It's not stalled. There's action in place, and you'll have numbers
runber the leverage, manage do we want
it. It's there. So then it's asking
me as I think about how I'm going to
approach my next few days, is if tomorrow goes sideways, so if all things collapse, what's the one thing that
still has to happen? I have to get my report out irrespective of anything. Okay. So putting that in even
with a spin mistake, all good, and that's non
negotiable, the report goes out. And then what happens
here is there's a bit of a summary of the
day that the AI says. So today, we've landed the
scope agreement with the PM. The key outcome was for the week one minor
change to communicate, but the hard
conversation is done. Watch for tomorrow,
budget figures from the finance BP first thing. They feed straight
into the report, get those numbers, frame the escalation early,
and the report goes out. So first thing tomorrow,
finance BP update, then write and send the report. Good day, Matt, the
lead domino fell. Again, this is its own
context that it's building. It's all memory, and it's got a personality to it, which
is really important. Now, the good thing with this is that I can free
start a little bit and go, remind me of where we are
against the spinning plates. And again, because
it's got the memory, because I've given
it the instructions, it's telling me, Hey, remember, here's the snapshots from
this morning's update. So reminding me again, budget is the only red plate, and it's got a clear
path finds BP tomorrow, good position heading
in to tomorrow. And again, I can
rinse and repeat and go through this
every single day, and it will capture
a building picture in its memory that you can call upon at any point in time. So remember, because
this project isn't just completely fixed on those two prompts
that we asked it to do around the morning check in and the end of the day run, similar to the spinning
plates question, we can ask it more
generic things like, can you summarize the state of the project and key progress? So just giving it a
general statement, again, it's going to harvest from its own memory where
things currently stand. So here we are. Here's where things stand based
on today's checking. Big win today was agreeing
the scope for the Senior PM. That was the week's critical
outcome, and it's done. It's talking about project
Health's broadly being solid, tracking is unplanned,
stakehers engaged, et cetera. The leadership priority
now is translating today's scope agreement into
clear, positive message. Talks about the open issues
all known and owned. Talks about the fans
business partner working on the full impact of the
picture from a budget cuts. Talks about roles
and new product only needs to be brought in. It's Amber item
planned for next week. Talks about tomorrow's
priority straightforward. Get the fans BP update
right and send that report. One hard conversation
done, one report to go. The project is in good
shape. So, see that? It pulls it all together because everything I've
told it this morning, whether it's the
plates, the focus, the risks, it's
held all of that in its memory and will continue to do so through the
course of the project. And that's the
fundamental difference between a prompt and the
skill that we've been built, which makes it
infinitely more useful as that PM assistant
as we move forward. And this will really make
a difference in your day to day because it's not going to allow you
to forget things, and it's going to
remind you what you've agreed to focus on
for the day ahead. And that's really
where the value is in utilizing these AI tools to really make a difference
and continue to make you a great PM. And and,
5. Lesson 5 Expanding further: So that's the version that
we've just built together, and I want to be honest with
you, that's really valuable. You can start using
that straightaway. Some of you will take
it, run with it, and get genuine value instantly straight out the
game, which is fantastic. And you can continue to
edit that as you see fit. But what I want to
show you now is something that I genuinely use. It's a little bit richer and contains a lot more
project elements in it, so I'll give you a
brief demonstration of what's in that skill file. Right, so here it is.
Here's what I actually use. This is piano Assistant
Skill version one. This was built only
earlier this month, but has been used quite a lot
now on the current project. So same model, same framework, but look how much more
is actually in here. Context has been set similar to one we've
just been through, but as well as those
morning check ins, we now have a midday check. We've got an end of day check. We have a weekly review,
which is really important. I've got change logs, risk logs. I can add risks,
I can add issues, various different things that
have been built in to that. Again, identity is there probably a little bit richer
than what we built out. The spinning plates
model is in there, same model, same framework. Again, a lot more in there. The morning check
in slightly larger. A few other bits and pieces come into this as well
at the same time. Midday triage. So again, maybe I need to just pause and recap on
how the days going. Is that lead Domino
still moving? Has anything come up this
morning that's changed those priorities get
really, really important? We've got the end of
day piece in there, as we've talked to Pat before. Again, a little bit of thinking about what's changed on the
project really important. A big, big one. I'm a
massive believer in this. We've got a weekly review
element or Friday wrap up. About 15 minutes long, five phases in there, it's all about those
project highlights, and the skill will
read back to me what's happening in that highlights,
honest reflection. We've got a change
log review in there, a motivational wrap up and
look ahead to the week ahead. And that's the kind of
structured Friday session that really means that Monday
will feel manageable. You going into the weekend
with a clear mind, nothing on your shoulders, and you know what's coming in the week ahead, really,
really important. And again, we've got
frameworks in here. We've got things
like the wrist log frameworks or the low mediums, high, issue logs, what
I expect it to keep, change logs, and again, talking specifically
about its memory, its tone, all baked into
this much richer skill. So if I switch back to
the project itself, and this is called project
manager Assistant, again, just so you can see this is the fuller skill file
that I've just gone through just there
now in obsiviian. But this is where I can
ask basic questions like, show the change log
from the last week. And again, it's a question.
It's got a memory. It's going to go and
look at where things are up to from what I've
told it in the past. And again, now it's got a whole bunch of change
log items in here. It's giving me a list of
scope reduction proposed, Junior PO joined
engineering confirmations. It's talking about
what's come today, it's like changing
the commercialization template that needs
to be adopted, seven entries, mostly
positive signals. All good. And it's asking me, then,
anything here that needs updating or changing in there.
I think that's important. And also, I can say, show
me the current risk log. And again, this is me
wanting to have that recap. You'll obviously be asking me this in the morning reviews. But again, I'm going to ask
it to look in its memory, look at those conversations, and it's now representing how this is looking
at a simple table, but low mediums highs,
probability, impact, and telling me where
I need to focus, which is really,
really important. So every time I've told it something has changed
during the day, a decisions made, there's
been a scope shift, a delay, it's logged,
those things. Without me doing anything extra. It's got my project accountability audit
trail all baked in. That's my weekly review
starting point irrespective. And I didn't build
that separately. The skill has helped
me build it for me, which is really, really useful. So whether it's the risk
log, the change log, the issue log, these are things that are
massively important. Sometimes we forget what
happened on projects, but it's going to maintain that memory through the course of it. As long as you do
those morning check ins and evening wrap
ups and weekly reviews, it's going to be a rich resource of information that's going to help you stay on
top of the project, not forget anything,
and keep you being a great project
manager moving forward. So the full skill
file, the version I use every day is
actually available as a download in
the class resources below, and you can open it, paste it in into your
own Claude project or whatever AI tool you're
using in that project, and you're up and running
just in a couple of minutes, I can start populating it with your project information and getting that value
every single day. Want to build your own version, everything you need is
obviously in this class, the instructions
and how to modify those things to
make them richer. You can start from
your own identity, don't have to use the
one that I've created. You can add your own framework. You can build your own modes. You can make it yours. And that's actually the point of all of this that we've
been doing today. Is not to hand you
a template, per se, but to show you how to think about building these
things moving forward, which is really
important because once you build one skill, you'll start seeing
other areas where you're able to apply
the same logic, a weekly planning skill, a stakeholder
communication skill, maybe, a risk review skill,
as we talked about there. The model is going
to be the same. You're just giving
the AI a new set of instructions of what
you're expected to be reviewing and remembering moving forward and expanding
this out into multiple skills or
even multiple personas is where this gets really,
really interesting. And I'll be doing a future
class on that at later date. For now, I want you
to go and build. I want you to paste
in the instructions, try the morning check in on
a real project of your own, and see how it feels
and adjust from there. And that's it. Thanks so much
for watching this class. As always, share your projects in the gallery and questions, drop them in the
discussion board, and I'll see you
in the next class.
Matt Corroboy, Projects, leadership, life and mindset.
