Member handbook · Edition 1 / October 2026A clear path from
question to outcome.
Your practical companion to Project Guide.
Plan thoughtfully. Involve the right people. Launch with evidence. Measure what changed.
Project Guide gives your work a home: the problem, supporting research, assigned tasks, review decisions, and results. It uses ADDIE to break a substantial project into manageable steps. You decide how much guidance to see and remain in control of approvals.
“Where are we? What happens next? Who needs to act?”
The workspace keeps those three questions in view.
Start here. Read the rest when you need it.
- Open the workspace.From Member home, choose Open Project Guide.
- Practice before using a real project.Choose Try a guided sample. No teammate or invitation is needed.
- Take one step, then continue.Use Essentials for a short view or Step-by-step for extra explanation.
Learn by doing02 / Your first walkthrough
Try a project without
putting anything at risk.
The sample, A better first response, explores an AI support pilot. Everything in it is fictional—including the people, sources, and results.
- Open “Try a guided sample.”Use the member portal button or visit tenseconds.ai/workspace.html?sample=1.
- Begin as Project lead.Read Define the business problem, then choose Accept this task. Review the starting text or choose Use fictional sample findings.
- Practice submitting and reviewing.Choose Submit for review. As the lead, choose Approve this work, or try Request changes and explain what is missing. Revise the findings and resubmit if needed.
- Complete the baseline task.Accept, record sample findings, submit, and approve Set the baseline and target. The next task belongs to the sample teammate, Mara.
- Practice the teammate’s part.In Act as, select Mara · teammate. Accept Gather research and team input, add fictional findings, and submit them. Switch back to Project lead to approve the work.
- Approve the stage checkpoint.Open Review stage checkpoint. Once the stage’s tasks are approved or skipped with a reason, record your decision and approve. Design opens next.
- Explore the remaining stages at your pace.Repeat the task and review cycle. In Evaluate, try an impact rating and inspect the final readout. Use Restart sample whenever you want a fresh start.
Practice is temporary. Sample work is not saved to your membership and sends no emails or invitations. Reloading the page resets the sample. Keep real company information in an account-backed project.
What to notice
Watch the task milestone percentage change after acceptance, submission, and approval. The ADDIE breadcrumb tracks stage approvals separately. Switching roles shows who is responsible for the next action.
Tip: You can preview future stages using the breadcrumb. Their work stays locked until the earlier checkpoint is approved.
Make it your own03 / Start a real project
Begin with the business need.
Sign in from Member home, open Project Guide, and choose Start my project. Personal members can create projects. Team seat holders work in projects shared by their lead.
| Starting field | What to enter · illustrative example |
|---|---|
| Project name | A short, recognizable outcome: “Faster customer responses.” |
| Problem today | Who is affected and why: “Repeat questions delay our support team.” |
| Starting point | A baseline with its source: “Median response time is 18 hours, from last month’s queue report.” |
| Successful result | A measurable target and period: “12 hours or less during a four-week pilot, with no drop in reviewed answer quality.” |
If the baseline is unknown, say what needs measuring and who can help. You can refine task findings as you learn. The readout preserves the original starting point and target, so explain any revised expectations in your findings.
Essentials
A short explanation, the task owner, and the available next action. Start here when the question is familiar.
Step-by-step
Smaller instructions and an expanded example. Switch to it whenever you want more support. Both views use the same work.
The task cycle
The assigned person accepts the task, records evidence, and submits it. The lead approves the work or requests specific changes. On a solo project, you perform both roles and should still check the evidence before approving.
A useful findings format
Finding: What did we learn?
Evidence: Source, link, date, and measurement period.
Uncertainty: What remains unknown?
Recommendation: What should happen next, and why?
Save habit: Changes save automatically in real projects. Wait for “Saved to your account” before leaving. “Next task” changes what you are viewing; it does not approve the work you just read.
A path, not a wall of tasks04 / Your five-stage reference
Know what each stage is for.
ADDIE stands for Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate. Here it provides a practical structure for technology projects, with a lead’s decision at each checkpoint.
Analyze
Understand the need. Define the problem, measure today’s performance, agree on a target, and collect research and team input.
Checkpoint: Are we solving a problem worth solving?
Tip: Describe the problem before selecting a vendor or product.Design
Choose an approach. Compare options, costs, risks, scope, and ownership. Set pilot criteria before seeing the results.
Checkpoint: Is this the right approach for our business?
Tip: Compare a new tool with improving the process or using what you already own.Develop
Prepare and test. Build or configure the solution, document instructions, test realistic cases, and confirm support and fallback arrangements.
Checkpoint: Is the solution ready for a controlled trial?
Tip: Test what happens when the solution is wrong or unavailable, too.Implement
Pilot, refine, and decide. Run a limited trial, review feedback, fix problems, and record whether to expand, revise, pause, or stop.
Checkpoint: Does the pilot justify a wider rollout?
Tip: Define the pilot’s participants, dates, and measures before launch.Evaluate
Measure the impact. Compare actual results with expectations, rate impact, capture SWOT and lessons, and assign follow-up ownership.
Checkpoint: Did the project deliver what we expected?
Tip: Use “Not yet measured” when evidence is missing. Record when and how you will measure it.Research and revision can happen throughout. If new evidence changes the plan, the lead can reopen an approved stage while the project is active. Later checkpoint approvals are cleared so the changed assumptions receive another review.
Progress, people & control05 / Keep the project manageable
See progress. Keep your judgment.
Two useful views of progress
Stage approvals: The ADDIE breadcrumb shows your current stage and approved checkpoints. Only the lead approves a checkpoint, after that stage’s tasks are approved or skipped with recorded reasons.
Task milestones: Each active task can reach Accepted, Submitted for review, and Approved. Overall task progress averages the share of tasks at those three milestones. It does not estimate time remaining or business success.
A simple example: With three active tasks, if two have reached acceptance, two submission, and one approval, progress is about 56%: (2 + 2 + 1) ÷ (3 × 3).
Skipped tasks are excluded. Requested changes remove the submission milestone until the work is resubmitted. Adding tasks or reopening work can lower the percentage.
Bring in the right people
- Start privately.A new project belongs to its lead. You can complete it alone.
- Share deliberately.Eligible team leads open Team access · private and choose Share with my team. This gives active teammates access to all project findings and activity—not just an assigned task. Manage seats through the member portal.
- Assign a clear task.Open Task options · assign or skip, select an active teammate, and choose Assign task. They find the shared project in their workspace. Tell them it is ready; this workspace does not send assignment emails.
The assigned person accepts and submits their task. The lead can edit unfinished findings, review submissions, and approve checkpoints. Lead-only decisions keep responsibility clear.
Adjust the work
Use Adjust steps & project options to add a task to the current or an upcoming stage. Use Skip with a reason for work that does not apply. The five stages remain in place.
Pause or revisit
The lead can pause or stop an active project with a reason, then resume it. Reopen a completed task before editing it; reopen its stage first if that checkpoint was approved.
The activity panel shows recent actions, authors, times, and decision notes. The project retains up to the latest 1,000 actions. It is an activity record, not a full document version history.
From completed work to business evidence06 / Measure the results
Make the outcome useful.
A completed checklist is only part of the story. In Evaluate, record what changed, how you measured it, and what the organization should do next.
Compare like with like
Bring together the original baseline, agreed target, actual result, measurement dates, and source. Note changes in workload or conditions that could affect the comparison. Record costs and limitations rather than assuming improvements equal financial savings.
Illustrative example—not a customer result
Baseline: median response time of 18 hours.
Target: 12 hours or less over a four-week pilot.
Actual: 11.4 hours, with reviewed quality holding steady.
Assessment: the response-time target was met; cost savings remain unmeasured.
Choose an impact rating and explain it
| Rating | When it fits |
|---|---|
| Not yet measured | The evidence is unavailable or the observation period is incomplete. |
| Below expectations | Results fell short of the agreed criteria. |
| Met expectations | Evidence supports the agreed success criteria. |
| Exceeded expectations | Evidence supports performance beyond the agreed criteria. |
| Mixed results | Some criteria were met and others were not. Explain the tradeoffs. |
You select the rating and provide the rationale. The workspace does not independently validate results or automatically calculate ROI.
Capture SWOT, lessons, and follow-up
Strengths: What worked? Weaknesses: What remains limited? Opportunities: Where could this help next? Threats: What could undermine the result? Add lessons and give each remaining action an owner and a review date in your findings.
Keep this page nearby07 / Readouts & practical tips
Small habits. Better decisions.
Prepare the executive readout
Open Research, decisions & readout → Open readout. It gathers original intent, baseline and target, task findings, review notes, stage approvals, and the impact rating. A readout opened before closure is labeled a working summary.
Use Print / save as PDF for a readable document. Download project record exports a JSON data file, including the retained activity history. Save and share either through your organization’s approved channels.
Before final approval: Check findings, rating, and follow-up ownership. The final Evaluate checkpoint closes the project; closed projects cannot currently be reopened. Ongoing operating responsibilities continue after closure.
Make the next action small
Prefer “Ask the support lead for last month’s response-time report” over “Research customer service.” Give each task a clear result the reviewer can recognize.
Separate evidence from assumptions
Label what you know, what a vendor claims, and what still needs testing. Include source dates. A useful unknown is better than an unsupported answer.
Review with a specific request
“Add the pilot dates and a source for the response-time figure” gives a teammate a practical next step. “Needs more detail” usually does not.
Use your existing tools
Keep files in your approved document system and record their links in the findings. Check that the people reviewing the project can open them.
Keep a short review rhythm
At each check-in, review the next action, blocked tasks, and pending decisions. Avoid adding work just to make the project look more detailed.
Choose depth when you need it
Use Essentials for familiar work. Switch to Step-by-step or open an example when a question needs explanation.
Your quick reference08 / Troubleshooting & useful terms
Find your next step.
If a button is missing or work is waiting, check the task status, the owner, and the current stage. The next action depends on all three.
If something seems stuck
| What you see | What to do next |
|---|---|
| No Accept button | Check the task owner. Only the assigned person accepts it. In the sample, use “Act as” to switch roles. |
| Cannot submit or edit | Accept first and add findings before submitting. Submitted work needs lead review. Approved work must be reopened before editing. |
| Checkpoint unavailable | Check every task in that stage. Each needs approval or a recorded skip reason. Only the lead approves the current checkpoint. |
| Changes did not save | Keep the page open and copy your text. Check your connection, then retry by editing or using the next action. Wait for the saved confirmation. |
| Someone else updated the project | Copy your draft first, then use “Reload latest project.” The recovery panel preserves unsaved text during that reload, not after closing the browser. |
| Cannot see a shared project | Confirm you are signed in with the invited account, the seat is active and eligible, and the lead has shared the project. Refresh the project list. |
Plain-language reminder: Baseline = today’s starting point. Target = the improvement you want. Pilot = a limited trial. Checkpoint = the lead’s decision to proceed. Readout = the gathered project summary.
Your next step: Try the sample, then bring one real business question to your workspace. The guide supports your judgment; your team remains responsible for decisions and results.
A few more useful terms
Scope: what the project includes and excludes.
Fallback: the previous process or another safe option if the new solution fails.
SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Impact rating: your evidence-supported assessment against the agreed expectations.
Task milestones: acceptance, submission, and approval of work, separate from business impact.