REBEL LEADERSFIELD TOOLS / A FREE EXERCISE

15 MINUTES · ON YOUR OWN OR TOGETHER

Whose time did
the AI save?

The code was finished on Tuesday.
The argument was still going on Friday.

Somewhere in between, a reviewer found an unanswered question, the ticket came back, and everyone acquired a strong opinion about AI.

Before the next round, take one small piece of work and follow it all the way through. You may find a useful place for AI. You may find a decision that’s been sitting in the hallway wearing a fake moustache.

Follow a piece of work Get the one-page worksheet

Free. No account, email address, or AI subscription needed.

Bring curiosity.
Leave the verdict open.

Use this with a PM, developer, reviewer, or anyone who touches the work. You can start alone; mark the parts you need someone else to check.

If AI hasn’t been used yet, map the current path and label any expected saving as a guess. Nobody needs to stage a trial just to finish a worksheet.

YOUR WORK · YOUR NOTES

Follow one small thing.

Pick something specific enough that you can remember what happened. “The renewal reminder” will serve you better than “our entire development process.”

Your entries stay in this browser tab until you download them. This exercise doesn’t send your notes to us or to an AI service. Refreshing or closing the tab clears them.

01 Choose the work 2 minutes
02 Follow the path 5 minutes

Write the steps in order, including waiting, handoffs, decisions and work that came back. Use rough timings if you have them. “We don’t know” belongs here too.

Keep hands-on effort and elapsed waiting separate. Two hours of work and two days in a queue tell different parts of the story; don’t add them into a neat “time saved” score.

See how the fictional reminder example might look

Path: Request agreed Monday → code ready Tuesday → waiting for a reviewer until Friday → review uncovers a disagreement about reminder timing → decision and revision → release still pending.

AI claim: Faster drafting might shorten coding. Nobody has measured that on this reminder yet.

Effort elsewhere: The reviewer must check the behavior; Maya and Alex need to settle the timing. Their effort is still unknown.

A useful next move: Agree when the reminder should go out and arrange a review slot. Then decide whether a bounded AI comparison would answer a remaining question.

This example doesn’t establish whether AI helps. It makes the missing evidence easier to see.

03 Notice the people 4 minutes
04 Leave with a useful next move 4 minutes

Take the conversation with you.

Download your notes as a plain text file. Nothing is submitted.

WHEN YOU NEED TO GO FURTHER

The conversation
can keep going.

AI Stalemate gives PMs and lead developers a Field Guide and two interactive Labs: a Conversation Companion and a Delivery Map. Start with the part of the disagreement you’re actually in.

Each edition is $47 USD, one time. The exercise above is yours to use without buying anything.

For product managersFor lead developers

Running this with other people?

Give everyone a quiet minute before comparing notes. Let the person doing a task describe its cost. Keep disagreements on the page as questions, and invite the missing perspective before declaring the map finished. A pair or a small group can use the same worksheet; larger groups can work in pairs and bring back one unresolved question.

You’re welcome to use and share the free exercise with your team or workshop, with credit to Nic Payne / Rebel Leaders and a link to this page. Please keep the credit and don’t resell the exercise.