Skip to agenda

HARNESS workshop

For the person on the team who owns the backlog - or wishes someone did.

From pile to portfolio, in three moves.

AI made having ideas free. Choosing them still costs. The pile grew faster than your ability to see it - and you can't pick three bets from a pile you can't see. Four hours: sort it, stress-test it, and walk out with a portfolio proposal your team can say yes to on Monday.

See the 2026 tour Why HARNESS

Why HARNESS

Most teams don't have an idea problem anymore - AI solved that one for free. Now the doc has seventy bullets, a dozen of them say "AI" somewhere, three of them are real bets, and nobody can point to the evidence that says which three. Without a shared map and shared evidence, the loudest voice wins on Monday and the same conversation repeats on Friday.

HARNESS is a working session, not a webinar. You bring the pile. We bring the method - four buckets to see it, seven pillars to stress-test it, and a one-page proposal format your team can ratify. By the end of the room you have something to show, not just notes to summarize.

Read the long form: Why HARNESS

Agenda

9:00 AM - 1:00 PM. Doors and coffee at nine, two working blocks, a catered lunch in the middle, and we close by locking the portfolio. One artifact you carry out the door.

  1. 9:00 - 9:30 AM

    Doors, coffee, gather

    Roll in, grab coffee, meet the room. We start the working session at nine-thirty sharp - arrive early enough to settle in.

  2. 9:30 - 10:30 AM

    1. Sort

    Dump the pile onto the wall and sort every line into four buckets - Bets, Bridges, Chores, and Cruft. No new ideas, no debate on merit yet. The point is a shared map of what is actually on the table. For most people in the room, this is the first time they've ever seen their backlog as a shape instead of a doc.

    You leave with: a four-bucket map of your full backlog, agreed by the room.

  3. 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM

    2. Stress-test

    Take the Bets bucket through seven pillars - problem, customer, evidence, mechanism, moat, cost-to-truth, and reversibility. One page per bet. Where the page is thin, the bet is thin; that is the signal, not a verdict.

    You leave with: a one-page stress test per real bet and a ranked short list.

  4. 12:00 - 12:30 PM

    Lunch + networking

    Lunch is on us and is part of the day. Use it to talk through what just landed, compare notes with the room, and trade contacts before we go into the final block.

  5. 12:30 - 1:00 PM

    3. Lock + close

    Lock your proposal: which three bets, in what order, and what evidence backs each one. Then lock the pitch - the meeting you'll call Monday to ratify it, and the weekly agenda template that keeps the portfolio honest once your team says yes.

    You leave with: a ranked portfolio proposal, one-page stress tests, and a weekly meeting template ready to run.

Came alone and want the whole room next time? The public session gets you the proposal. The team session gets you the operating rhythm - and the room that can say yes. Bring HARNESS to your team

2026 tour

Six stops, July through October. Seats per stop are limited. Luma RSVP pages go live shortly - this list is the dates and venues to hold.

Can't make a public stop, or want the room to be just your team? Bring HARNESS to your team and we'll schedule a private session.