Show Your Work

Show Your Work

Overview

Building is only half the value. Sharing what you built — and what you learned — multiplies your impact across the organization. This skill turns any build into shareable knowledge.

Keywords: share, present, document, impact, ROI, summary, guide, teach, before after, showcase

Output Formats

1. Impact Summary (for leadership / Slack)

A concise summary designed for people who care about outcomes, not technical details.

Format:

## What I Built: [Name]

**Problem**: [1-2 sentences describing the manual/painful process]
**Solution**: [1-2 sentences describing what was automated/built]

**Impact**:
- Time saved: [X hours/week]
- Before: [how it used to work]
- After: [how it works now]
- People affected: [who benefits]

**What I learned**: [1 sentence about the key insight]

**Want this for your team?** [1 sentence offering to help others do the same]

2. How-to-Replicate Guide (for teammates)

A step-by-step guide someone else could follow to build the same thing or adapt it for their use case.

Format:

## How to Build: [Name]
**Time needed**: ~[X] minutes
**Skill level**: No coding experience needed
**What you'll need**: [Google account, access to X, etc.]

### What This Does
[2-3 sentence plain-English explanation]

### Step-by-Step Setup
[Numbered steps with exact clicks, screenshots descriptions, and what to expect]

### How to Customize It
[Common things someone might want to change, and how]

### Troubleshooting
[Top 3 things that might go wrong and how to fix them]

3. Before/After Comparison

A visual-style comparison that makes the impact tangible.

Format:

## Before vs. After: [Name]

| | Before | After |
|:--|:-------|:------|
| **How it works** | [manual process] | [automated process] |
| **Time per occurrence** | [X minutes/hours] | [X seconds/minutes] |
| **Frequency** | [how often] | [same, but automated] |
| **Error rate** | [manual errors] | [automated accuracy] |
| **Who does it** | [person/team] | [runs automatically] |

**Total time saved per month**: [calculation]
**Total time saved per year**: [calculation]

4. Learning Story (for culture / blog / wiki)

A narrative format that captures not just what was built, but the journey of building it.

Format:

## How I Built [Name] (And What I Learned)

### The Problem
[What was painful and why it mattered]

### The Hypothesis
[What I thought would work and why]

### The Build
[What I actually built — kept simple, no jargon]

### What Broke
[What didn't work the first time — normalized as part of learning]

### What I Learned
[Key insights — technical and non-technical]

### What's Next
[How this could grow or what else it inspired]

5. Presentation Outline (for demos / show-and-tell)

A structured outline for a 5-minute live demo or presentation.

Format:

## Demo: [Name] (5 minutes)

**Slide 1 — The Problem** (30 seconds)
[One sentence about the pain point. Make the audience feel it.]

**Slide 2 — The Idea** (30 seconds)
[What if we could...? State the hypothesis.]

**Live Demo** (2 minutes)
[Run the automation live. Show the input, the process, the output.]

**Slide 3 — The Impact** (1 minute)
[Before/after numbers. Who benefits. Time saved.]

**Slide 4 — What I Learned** (30 seconds)
[One key insight. What surprised you.]

**Close — Call to Action** (30 seconds)
[Who else could use this? How can you help them?]

How to Use

When the user says any of the following, ask which format they want:

• "Help me share this"
• "I want to show my team"
• "How do I present this?"
• "Write up what I built"
• "Document this"
• "Show my work"

If they're unsure, recommend based on context:

• Sharing in Slack → Impact Summary
• Helping a teammate do the same → How-to-Replicate Guide
• Pitching to a manager → Before/After + Presentation Outline
• Contributing to team culture → Learning Story

Rules

• Strip all jargon — these artifacts are for non-technical audiences
• Focus on impact and learning, not technical implementation
• Make the user the hero of the story — they built this
• Always include a "what's next" or "how you can help others" element
• Never include code in leadership-facing outputs unless asked

Tone

• Proud but humble: "Look what we built" not "Look how smart I am"
• Impact-focused: numbers, time saved, people helped
• Inviting: "You could do this too" energy
• Honest about the journey: include what broke, what was hard