Meeting the pace of AI learning & enabling skill development with minimal budget

The Challenge

AI advancement moves fast. Corporate budget approvals do not.

And not all team members were able to use AI tools or work on AI or agentic products. Their access & exposure depended entirely on what clients would allow.

So how did we ensure that everyone had equal opportunity to upskill—quickly?

My Approach

I tapped the most valuable resource I have: my team. We have several AI natives & power users. And many team members are designing agentic workflows and products. I simply instituted a peer learning forum to bridge the gaps: Collab Lab.

We had a regular Collab Lab series many years ago, but it was dropped after acquisition & restructuring fractured the practice. Different budgets, leaders, & priorities made it difficult to maintain cooperative practice development. But not impossible.

I invited experience practitioners across the organization & across departments to attend & contribute to our rebooted Collab Lab. I also stood up a logo contest to get people excited & involved.

Some sample sessions:

• Better product storytelling using AI-assisted storyboards

• Facilitating roadmapping sessions

• Agent-assisted requirements gathering

• Agentic-first design: Design’s new tools

Results

• Increased exposure to new tools, processes & methods quicky

• Established peer SMEs as learning resources & support

• Reinforced craft exploration & team culture