I keep seeing people skip the boring setup work, then wonder why their AI automation breaks in production.
So I packaged the exact free templates I use to avoid that.
You can copy these into Obsidian right now, run them in 20 to 30 minutes, and get clearer decisions before you spend money on implementation.
What is included
I use three free templates as a lightweight operating loop:
- AI workflow intake scorecard
- AI approval matrix
- Weekly AI risk review
You can use each one standalone, but the compounding value comes from running all three every week.
If you want the step-by-step versions, use these workflow guides:
Free template 1: AI workflow intake scorecard
Use this to rank automation candidates by business impact, complexity, and risk.
# AI Workflow Intake Scorecard
## Workflow Candidate
- Name:
- Owner:
- Trigger:
- Current manual process:
## Business Value (0-5)
- Revenue impact:
- Time saved:
- Error reduction:
## Implementation Complexity (0-5)
- Data access complexity:
- Integration complexity:
- Change-management complexity:
## Risk Exposure (0-5)
- Data sensitivity:
- Compliance/approval constraints:
- Failure blast radius:
## Decision
- Composite score:
- Recommended action: pursue now | queue | reject
- Why:
Free template 2: AI approval matrix
This is how I keep high-impact actions from auto-running without guardrails.
# AI Approval Matrix
## Policy
- Default mode: approvals required for high-impact actions
- Escalation owner:
- Incident contact:
## Action Classes
- Read-only research
- Draft generation
- Internal notifications
- External communications
- Data mutation
- Financial operations
## Approval Rules
- Auto-allowed:
- Human-approval required:
- Dual-approval required:
- Blocked:
## Logging Requirements
- Event name:
- Actor:
- Timestamp:
- Input summary:
- Output summary:
- Rollback path:
Free template 3: weekly AI risk review
This keeps your automation healthy after launch.
# Weekly AI Risk Review
## Week of
- Date range:
- Reviewer:
## Reliability
- Incidents this week:
- Top recurring failure mode:
- Mean time to recovery:
## Safety and Governance
- Approval bypasses detected:
- Access scope changes:
- New compliance concerns:
## Product and Revenue
- Workflows with highest ROI:
- Workflows with poor ROI:
- Biggest conversion blocker:
## Actions for next week
- [ ] Reliability hardening task
- [ ] Approval policy update
- [ ] Conversion-path improvement
How I run this in 30 minutes
- I score the top three candidate workflows.
- I update approval rules before any new automation rollout.
- I run the weekly risk review and force one reliability fix plus one conversion fix.
That gives me one clear go/no-go decision per workflow without guesswork.
What "good" output looks like (not template theater)
I do not count this as useful unless the templates produce decisions:
- One workflow is explicitly selected for implementation now.
- One owner is assigned for every high-impact action class.
- One recurring failure mode gets one concrete fix scheduled this week.
If I only fill boxes and never force these decisions, I am doing documentation theater, not operations.
Failure modes I avoid
- Filling templates after the week is over instead of during planning.
- Scoring everything as "high impact" because nobody wants to de-prioritize.
- Writing approval policies without naming a real escalation owner.
- Logging issues without assigning one reliability fix and due date.
Next step: move from free templates to implementation
If you have one workflow with:
- clear business value,
- known risk boundaries,
- and an owner who can approve changes,
then you are ready to move from planning into a production implementation path.
If you want me to help you prioritize and ship that first production workflow, use the fixed setup offer path:
- Start with $1,000 paid discovery (credited toward $5,000 if you continue) or pay $5,000 in full
- Submit setup intake
I review applications personally and I only take workflows I can help you ship safely.