This case is entirely constructed. The people and the numbers are fictional. They show how to prepare, run and check a first attempt.
Mariam is a student. Her aunt runs a small fabric shop. All day, customers send messages to ask whether a fabric is in stock, in which colours, at what price. Her aunt answers each one by hand, between sales.
Understanding before building
Mariam spends a Saturday afternoon in the shop. She counts twenty-three messages asking about stock. Her aunt keeps the stock in a notebook. Mariam asks what customers really want to know: whether a fabric is there, the colours, the price per metre.
The attempt, in one hour
That evening, Mariam builds a shared list with an AI: fabric, colours, price per metre, in stock or not. The AI also drafts a short message her aunt can send with the link.
- Person helped: her aunt, and the customers who ask.
- Problem observed: 23 stock questions in one afternoon, answered by hand.
- Assumption: a list customers can check themselves will cut the questions.
- Attempt: send the link to the ten customers who ask most often.
- Effort: one hour to build, twenty minutes with her aunt to fill it in.
- What could go wrong: the list goes out of date. Her aunt updates it every evening at closing.
- What we look at: stock questions per day, for one week.
What changes in the first week
On the first day, two customers say the link will not open on their phone: it asks them to create an account. Mariam changes the sharing setting in two minutes.
By the end of the week, stock questions drop from about twenty a day to eight. Several customers now ask for a fabric by the name it has in the list.
Observed: stock questions from about 20 to 8 a day, over one week, with 10 customers who had the link.
Not known yet: whether it holds when her aunt is busy and forgets an update.
Decision: keep it, send the link to every regular customer, and look again in a month.
Handing it over
Mariam shows her aunt how to update the list and add a new fabric. Her aunt does it alone the next evening. Mariam’s part ends there.
She writes a short post about what she did, with the template list, so other small shops can copy it.
For your first attempt: one person, one problem you can see, a version in an hour, one week of looking. The templates help you prepare it. The cards Talk to the person who has the problem and Trying costs less than asking explain the choices behind it.