Your AI leadership OSWorkshop workspace · Maria Gutierrez
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LeadDev Berlin · Workshop
Your AI leadership OS.
Run your week on purpose.
Maria GutierrezAdvisory · Speaking · Mentoring
Before we start · Follow along
Grab your laptop. This deck talks back.

Scan it

Laptop or tablet is best.

Follow along

The slides are in your hands too.

Make it yours

A short talk, then you work. Solo, then pairs.

Take it home

It stays on your device. Your AI tool does the rest.

While everyone scans: guess how much of last week went on what matters most. We'll find out soon.
Point your camera here

No device? Paper and sticky notes are on your table.

Your host
Hi, I'm Maria.
Engineering leader with 25 years building software and the organisations that build it. Today you build the system I run my own week on.
mariagutierrez.co.uk
My system · Luna
Built, broken and rebuilt for a year.
Late 2025

Started exploring

Leading critical and compliance products in a 600-person organisation.

March 2026

One system

One vault for priorities, people, projects and decisions.

July 2026

A rule from a failure

It flagged four replies as missing. All had been sent. Now it checks first.

September 2026

Fewer, not more

Reminders cut from 36 to 22. One per outcome.

October 2026

Loops close themselves

Every thread writes its outcome before it stops.

Today

It runs my practice

Now my own consulting business.

Pressure-tested in two very different jobs. Every rule in it exists because something went wrong.

mariagutierrez.co.uk
Where AI changes a leader's job
Three areas to lead. One is easy to skip.
The product

How what we build is changing

New capabilities, new value for customers, new ways for the product to fail.

The organisation

How the teams we support are changing

Quality, speed and new ways of working, as teams build with agents.

You

How your own role evolves

How you work, decide and use the tools yourself.

It's easy to spend all your time on the first two and neglect the third.

For me, the third became the catalyst: a deeper understanding of what I can accomplish in the other two, and more of an expert in them.

mariagutierrez.co.uk
Why we're here
Your team is changing how it builds. Redefine your own role to match.
And let the new tools hold you to it.
mariagutierrez.co.uk
The problem
More gets done. More lands on you.

Output waiting for your review

Drafts, PRs, summaries and agent runs, all faster than before.

Threads and tools multiplying

More channels, more parallel work, more places to look.

Each one is an open loop

Held in your head until it has an outcome and a next step.

mariagutierrez.co.uk
What the research says
“
Unfinished goals intrude on unrelated work. A concrete plan quiets them, even before the task is done.
Masicampo and Baumeister, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2011 (summary)

So the leader's job shifts

From holding loops to closing them: an outcome, a next step and a home for each. A system does the holding.

mariagutierrez.co.uk
What changed
Your team got faster. Did your decisions?
Every change queues behind a review. Every decision queues behind you.
mariagutierrez.co.uk
The shift your engineers already made
The same four moves, for your job.

Write down what good looks like

Your team: rules, reasons and owners in files the agent reads every time.

You: your compass and decision principles, so people stop waiting to know what you'd want.

Measure where it stalls

Your team: cost, quality and waiting time, tracked before they bite.

You: time on your goals, decisions waiting on you, loops open for a week.

Prove it, by risk

Your team: evidence on every change, review as deep as the risk.

You: a decision pack for every call. Two-way doors go fast; one-way doors get your full attention.

Automate, with guardrails

Your team: agents with their own permissions; people decide where it counts.

You: routines that sweep and draft. AI never sends, never commits.

mariagutierrez.co.uk
In practice · A day with the system
A manager's Tuesday, with the system running.
    mariagutierrez.co.uk
    The value
    What you can do now that you couldn't before.

    Decide in minutes, with full context

    History, threads and numbers in one pack before you choose.

    Walk into every meeting prepared

    Including the one you were added to an hour ago.

    Run five workstreams, not in your head

    Every loop has a home and a next step.

    See a risk before it's escalated

    The topics you watch get swept every day.

    Know every Friday if your week worked

    Not at the quarterly review.

    Be a maker again

    Protected time to think, write and build, with the tools your team uses.

    mariagutierrez.co.uk
    The next ninety minutes
    What you leave with
    Your system, started in the room.

    Your compass

    Priorities for the business, your team and you, each with a goal and a measure.

    Your week, honestly

    Where it went, and a template week with focus time protected.

    Your rhythm

    A daily and weekly loop, and a clear line between what AI supports and what you decide.

    Your starter kit

    Context files, a prompt for each routine, and a four-week plan for any AI tool.

    mariagutierrez.co.uk
    Before we start

    Set up your workspace.

    Everything you type here stays in this browser on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere. At the end you take it with you as files for your own AI tool.