Cohort Session Template

Cohort session template

Copy this for a session of your own. The eight sessions in the Cohort Kit all follow it.

A session is ninety minutes and has one question. If it has two, it is two sessions. Everything below serves the question: the pre-reading is what a person needs to argue about it, the exercise is where they find out whether they can, and the decision is the answer written down.

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The template

# Session N · <Title>

*<The one question this session answers, as a question.>*

**Pre-reading** (send one week ahead; about <NN> minutes)
- <Lesson title>(<site URL>) — <why it matters for this session, one clause>
- <Lesson title>(<site URL>) — <...>

**Bring.** <What each attendee brings: a candidate use case, last quarter's bill, an existing spec.>

**You will leave with.** <The artefact, named: an AI-fit verdict, a bar with its sample size, a bolt plan.>

## Run-sheet

| Minutes | Block | Do this | Material |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 0–10 | Recap | One question per pre-read lesson, answered by an attendee | — |
| 10–35 | The idea | Walk <picture> and <workbench page>; the room says what the picture shows | <links> |
| 35–65 | Exercise | Pairs work <exercise id> on the team's project; SkyWays if there is none. Compare answers before checking | <link to the exercise, the calculator> |
| 65–80 | Decision | The room decides <the decision> and writes it in <the template> | <link to the template> |
| 80–90 | Close | Homework named; one sentence each on what changed | — |

## Facilitator notes

- <The mistake this session's exercise usually surfaces, and what to say when it does.>
- <The place the room will want to skip ahead, and why not to.>
- <If the pre-reading was not done: the ten-minute version.>

## Homework

<One artefact, due before the next session, that the next session uses.>

## Next

**[Session N+1 · <Title>](<page>)** — <the question it answers>.

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How the pieces are chosen

Pre-reading is lessons on the site, never more than about forty minutes, because more than that is not read. Each lesson opens with its answer, so a person who reads only the first paragraph of each still arrives able to take part.

The idea block uses one picture from the lesson and one page of the workbench. The picture carries the idea; the workbench page shows it with numbers that move. Put the picture on screen and ask the room what it shows before you explain it. It takes longer and it lands.

The exercise comes from Exercises and Answers, which has thirty-one with worked answers and a finder by role and difficulty, or from a workbench calculator run on the team's own project. The rule for choosing: the exercise must be one a pair can get wrong in an instructive way. An exercise everyone gets right is a recap, not an exercise.

The decision is the artefact of the step the session teaches, in the template that role uses. Writing it down is the point; a decision that stays verbal is re-argued next week.

Homework is one thing, named, that the next session opens with. Never reading; reading is pre-reading. Homework is an artefact.

When a session goes wrong

What happens	Do this
Nobody did the pre-reading	Run the ten-minute version from the facilitator notes, then the exercise anyway. The exercise teaches the reading
The arithmetic takes the whole hour	Stop at thirty-five minutes with whatever numbers exist. The decision block works with rough numbers; the point is the assumption that differs, not the decimal
The room decides the candidate project is not an agent	That is a successful session. Write the verdict down in the AI-fit template and pick the next candidate for homework
One person knows all the answers	Make them the scribe for the decision block. They stop answering and start recording what the room decides
The team wants to skip to building	Session 3 is the earliest that makes sense, and only after the bar from session 2 exists. Say so, and say why: a bolt without a bar cannot be proven

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Back to the Cohort Kit · the eight sessions start with Session 1 · Kick-off