Manager workshop
Objective. Leave a customer's front-line managers able to read their team's numbers with context and run one repeatable review routine that ends in an action and an owner.
A ready-to-run agenda for the manager enablement session, built around a single operating routine rather than a feature tour. Managers learn to read a metric with its context, distinguish the measures that answer different questions, and turn a dashboard into a decision. This is the tool version of the manager track in C03 and C04 - copy the agenda, teach one routine well, check the exit.
See it in the demo
What it is and when to use it
A manager workshop enables the people who will actually use Time Champ every week - the front-line team leads and managers. Run it after the admin session (KIT-05), once their teams' data is validated. It matters because adoption lives or dies with managers: if they cannot read a number with context or do not have a routine that ends in an action, the product becomes a dashboard nobody opens. The session teaches one routine deeply, not every screen shallowly - a manager who runs one review well adopts more than one who was shown forty features.
The agenda - copy this
MANAGERS: ____ TEAM SCOPE: ____ PRIMARY APP(S): ____ DATE: ____
- WHY THIS MATTERS (5 min) - the business question their team's numbers answer, in their words.
- READ A METRIC WITH CONTEXT (15 min) - denominator, scope, period, exclusions; which measures answer which question (for example attendance vs utilisation, or utilisation vs output attainment). HANDS-ON: read one of their real numbers aloud and state what it does and does not mean.
- THE REVIEW ROUTINE (20 min) - the weekly loop: look at the agreed view, spot the exception, investigate with context, decide an action, assign an owner, log it. HANDS-ON: run one full loop on a real exception.
- WHAT NOT TO CONCLUDE (10 min) - the common misreads for their app (a non-productive label is not proof of no useful work; a simulated or projected figure is not an achieved result; capacity is not cash). HANDS-ON: spot one misread.
- CADENCE + OWNERSHIP (10 min) - when they run it, where actions live, what they escalate to the admin or CSM.
EXIT: the manager runs one full review loop end to end and correctly states one thing a key metric does NOT prove.
How to fill and run it
Prep with the manager's own team data so every example is theirs, not a demo account. Anchor block 1 on the business question they care about, pulled from the success plan (KIT-08). Teach the review routine as a loop that always ends in an action with an owner and a log entry - a review that ends in 'interesting' is not a routine. In block 4, use the specific misreads for their application from its guardrails: attendance percentage and utilisation answer different questions; a non-productive application label is not proof of no useful work; a simulated or projected number is not an achieved result; capacity value is not cash. Close only when the manager runs a full loop themselves and can name one thing a metric does not prove. Set the cadence before they leave (KIT-09).
The honest caveat
A manager who can run the routine has the capability, not yet the habit - adoption is the routine actually running week after week, which is why cadence and follow-through are set here and tracked later (KIT-09, KIT-10). Teach the honest reading of every metric: do not let a manager leave believing a single number proves more than it does, because a confident misread damages trust with their own team faster than no data would. Keep to the measures and views the account actually has; do not demonstrate a capability they are not entitled to, and mark anything uncertain confirm-with-product. The workshop builds reading and routine - realised outcomes still depend on the actions the manager takes, not on the dashboard existing.
Interpretation check
Different measures answer different questions - attendance is not utilisation, utilisation is not output, a simulated or projected figure is not an achieved result, and capacity is not cash. A manager is enabled only when they can read a number with its context and state what it does not prove.
Practical task
Run the manager workshop using the manager's own team data, have them complete one full review loop (view, exception, context, action, owner, log) on a real exception, and confirm they can state one correct thing a key metric does not prove. Set the weekly cadence before closing.
Self-check
Why teach one routine deeply instead of touring every screen?
Adoption follows managers running one review loop well; being shown many features produces a dashboard nobody opens. One repeatable routine that ends in an action beats breadth.
What must every pass through the review routine end in?
A decided action with an owner and a log entry - a review that ends in 'interesting' is not a routine and produces no outcome.
Give one misread a manager must be able to avoid.
Treating a non-productive application label as proof the employee did no useful work; or reading a simulated/projected figure as an achieved result; or presenting capacity as cash.
When is the manager actually enabled?
When they run a full review loop themselves end to end and can correctly state one thing a key metric does NOT prove - capability demonstrated, not just watched.
Verified vs demo. The agenda and routine are reusable; the examples must use the customer's own validated data, and the metrics shown must be ones the account is entitled to. App-specific misreads come from each application's guardrails; anything uncertain is confirm-with-product.