Good work takes too much effort.
Preparation gets repeated. The same details need correcting. You want to spend more of your team’s time on the work that makes a difference.
Field note · How to Choose the First Workflow to Improve with AIOperating Design Studio
Take your best work further.
Mode Lab helps small teams improve how their business works—and build new capabilities—with AI. We design how people and AI work together, test the approach on real tasks, and help your team put it into practice.
What would you like to change?
Useful AI practices stay with individuals.
People have found approaches that work for them. You want to make those approaches useful across the team, with shared knowledge and clear standards.
Field note · From ChatGPT Experiments to a Shared Team WorkflowYou have an idea for something new.
A service you could offer. A product you could develop. Something your business could do if you found the right way to bring your expertise and AI together.
Field note · What to Design Before You Build an AI WorkflowYou’re deciding how to grow.
Before hiring or investing in another system, you want to understand how the work could change—and what your team will need to take it on.
Field note · What to Design Before You Build an AI WorkflowLess time assembling reports. More time acting on them.
A team’s weekly project review
Every week, someone pulls figures from different systems, chases project updates and puts the report together. By the time it’s ready, there’s little time left to work through what needs attention.
Start with the decisions the report should help you make.
Which projects are falling behind? Where is work taking more time than planned? What needs a conversation with the client? We agree what the team needs to know and what would make an issue worth flagging.
From project updates to decisions.
Illustrative workflow · weekly project review
01 · Automation + AI
Gather updates. Prepare the summary.
Bring together project progress and time spent. AI highlights changes and links back to the sources.
Is the information clear enough to review?
Something is missing or unclear
Clarification needed
Ask the person responsible.
Confirm the update or clarify the figures. Refresh the summary before relying on it.
Sources and context are available
Ready for review
Bring the changes into focus.
Show progress, possible problems and the source information for the project lead to check.
Both paths lead to human review
02 · Project lead
Review the report. Decide what happens next.
Check the summary, add context and name who will resolve a delay, review costs or speak with the client.
Put the team’s time where it makes a difference.
The aim is less time copying, chasing and formatting—and more time resolving delays, managing project costs and keeping clients informed.
We test that on real work: does preparation take less effort, are the flags useful, and can the team trust the report enough to act?
Bring us one piece of work you want to improveDesign how people and AI work together.
Operating Design shapes how people and AI work together to improve business performance and build new capabilities. It defines how expertise guides the work, who does what, who decides what, and how the work gets done.
Start with what the business needs.
We work through what you want to improve or make possible, then explore where AI could help.
Bring your expertise into the work.
We make your team’s knowledge, methods and standards usable in the way the work runs. That includes what AI can handle, where a person’s judgement matters, and who is responsible for the result.
Test the approach on real work.
We use real tasks to check whether the approach works, where it needs changing and what it asks of your team. A prototype can help us test an idea before committing to a full build.
Help your team put it into practice.
When we implement, we build and connect the systems and help your team use them. We agree who looks after them and what support is needed.
Ways to work together
Decide what to tackle, develop the capability you need, or have us look after systems already in use. We’ll agree the right engagement for your situation.
Assessment
We investigate your work, identify where AI could make a worthwhile difference, and recommend what to do first. You leave with clear priorities and a useful next step.
Find a useful starting point.
- What needs to improve?
- The work you want to change or make possible.
- Where could AI help?
- Where it could make a worthwhile difference.
- What should happen first?
- A useful next step, whether or not we go on to build together.
Design & Implementation
Develop and put a capability into practice. Work with us through a defined project or ongoing collaboration. Engagements can focus on design, implementation, or both.
Choose how we work together.
- A defined project
- Agree the result, scope and timing. We design, build and test the agreed work, then prepare your team to take it forward.
- Ongoing collaboration
- Two 45-minute working sessions per month with Ronnie and your team to address implementation questions. We design and build where needed under an agreed service scope.
Your team runs the systems.
In ongoing collaboration, we help you move the work forward. Your team remains responsible for operating the result.
Managed AI
Have us look after agreed systems. We take on specified responsibilities for operating, maintaining or improving your AI systems, with clear scope and service expectations.
Make ongoing responsibility clear.
- Define what we look after
- The systems and responsibilities included in the service.
- Agree how we look after them
- Operation, maintenance or improvements, with service expectations set together.
- Keep responsibility clear
- Our agreed duties continue between meetings.
Your team keeps the business decisions.
We agree which decisions need your judgement and approval.
Tell us what you want to improve or make possible. We’ll help you work out where to start.
Start a conversation
Meet Ronnie Parsons.
I’m Ronnie, founder of Mode Lab, based in the Pacific Northwest. For more than two decades, I’ve helped businesses rethink how they design, develop and deliver their work—from new products and manufacturing methods to workflows and team training.
That experience shapes how I approach AI today. I look at the work people need to do, the expertise they bring, and what would help them do it better or take on something new.
More about RonnieQuestions before we start.
Do we need an Assessment first?
No. An Assessment helps when priorities or direction are unclear. With sufficient direction already in place, we can start with a defined project or ongoing collaboration. An Assessment is paid work with a useful answer of its own.
Should we choose a project or ongoing collaboration?
Choose a project when you need an agreed result delivered to a defined scope and timing. Choose ongoing collaboration when you want to work through implementation questions and develop your workflows with us over time. Both involve your team. Collaborative design and build work is bounded by the agreed service scope; a larger build can become a separately scoped project.
Who looks after the systems?
Your team runs the systems developed through ongoing collaboration. For projects, we agree operating responsibilities and included support at handoff. If you want Mode Lab to take on continuing duties, we can scope Managed AI for specified systems. Those duties continue between meetings under the service agreement. Managed AI is optional, and your team retains consequential business decisions.
How is the work scoped and priced?
Each engagement is priced for the work and responsibility involved. We agree the scope, price, timing and participation from your team before you commit. Projects have defined deliverables and acceptance criteria. Recurring engagements have agreed capacity, responsibilities and service expectations, set out in the service agreement and SLA. Ownership, access, third-party tools and support boundaries are made clear.
Tell us what you’d like to change.
Tell us what you want to improve or make possible. We’ll help you work out where to start.