Stage 0 — Consultative Discovery

Stark Industries PMO · from an email to an architecture

FOUNDATION

How I processed Pepper's request. The assignment is a PMO Director's email asking for intake, SLA tracking, and a dashboard. The evaluation isn't about monday.com expertise — it's about architectural instincts, consultative thinking, and AI as a working tool. This diagram traces the chain from what Pepper said → what I heard → what I built → what I deliberately cut.

Explicit requirements from the PMO Director

"Requests are vague — I need a standardized intake process"

Problem #1: Inconsistent submission quality

"We need SLA tracking — requests reviewed within 5 days"

Problem #2: No accountability on review timelines

"An executive dashboard so leadership can see portfolio health"

Problem #3: Manual spreadsheet-to-PowerPoint grind

"I have 3 PMs who'd manage from a portfolio view"

Constraint: 3-person PM team, strategic oversight needed

The problems she didn't name but implied

Requests need screening before the SLA clock starts IMPLICIT

Someone has to read every request and decide: is this complete? Is this actually a project? Without a gatekeeping step, incomplete requests flood the PM queue and the 5-day clock starts on noise.

SLA breach must notify, not just silently expire IMPLICIT

A 5-day SLA that silently expires isn't tracking — it's a stopwatch. When the clock runs out, the PM needs to be alerted immediately, not discover it days later in a report.

Executives and PMs need different views of the same data IMPLICIT

Pepper manually builds PowerPoints because the raw PM-level data isn't structured for leadership consumption. The two audiences need different boards designed for their specific questions.

Vague requests create all downstream problems IMPLICIT

Every problem Pepper described traces back to poor request quality. Fix intake — make it structured, complete, AI-assisted — and everything downstream improves. This is where AI earns its place.

flowchart TD
  USER["User submits\na vague request"]:::hitl

  USER --> FORM["Tier 1: Intake Form\n8 fields → Intake Board"]

  FORM -->|"item created"| AI_SUMMARY
  FORM -->|"item created"| AI_COMPLETE

  AI_SUMMARY["AI Summary column\nsummarizes Business Problem\nfor the PM to review"]
  AI_COMPLETE["AI Completeness column\nreads Business Problem +\nBudget + Timeline + Success Criteria\noutputs COMPLETE or INCOMPLETE: reason"]

  AI_COMPLETE --> GATE["AI Completeness Gate\nformula extracts\nCOMPLETE / INCOMPLETE"]
  GATE --> DEC1{"AI says\nrequest is complete?"}
  DEC1 -->|"YES · conceptually sound"| FIELD["Field Completeness\nformula checks all\nrequired fields filled"]
  DEC1 -.->|"NO · missing info"| NOTIFY["Notify requester\nwith AI's reason\nfor incompleteness"]:::trigger
  NOTIFY -.->|"requester revises\nand resubmits"| FORM

  FIELD -->|"YES · all fields present"| TIER2
  FIELD -.->|"NO · blank fields"| FORM

  TIER2["Tier 2: Portfolio Board\nPM strategic view · 3 PMs"]
  TIER2 -->|"item arrives"| SLA_CLOCK
  TIER2 -->|"item arrives"| PEPPER

  SLA_CLOCK["SLA Clock Starts\n5-day review window"]:::trigger
  SLA_CLOCK --> DEC3{"5 days passed\nwithout review?"}
  DEC3 -->|"YES · SLA broken"| SLA_ALERT["SLA Breach\nNotify PM immediately"]:::trigger
  DEC3 -->|"NO · still waiting"| SLA_CLOCK

  PEPPER["Pepper triages the request\nsurfaces what's NOT being said\nreads between the lines"]:::hitl
  PEPPER --> DEC2{"Approve\nfor execution?"}
  DEC2 -->|"YES · approved"| EXEC_CREATE["Execution Board\ncreated from template\nPM assigned"]:::trigger
  DEC2 -.->|"NO · rejected\n→ back to submitter"| FORM

  EXEC_CREATE --> TIER3

  TIER3["Tier 3: Execution Board\nwhere the actual work happens\norganized by sprint"]
  TIER3 -->|"status changed"| ROLLUP["Status + Due Date\nsync back to Portfolio"]:::trigger
  ROLLUP --> TIER2

  TIER2 -->|"data feeds"| TIER4

  TIER4["Tier 4: Executive Dashboard\n4 widgets · zero manual work"]
  TIER4 --> D1["Portfolio Health"]
  TIER4 --> D2["SLA Compliance"]
  TIER4 --> D3["Active Projects"]
  TIER4 --> D4["Department Load"]

  classDef trigger fill:#fde8d8,stroke:#e8621a,strokeWidth:2px
  classDef decision fill:#f5f8fc,stroke:#d97706,strokeWidth:2px
  classDef hitl fill:#d4f0f0,stroke:#008c85,strokeWidth:2px

Trigger / Automation

Fires automatically on a system event

System Decision

Formula-based branching (completeness, SLA clock)

HITL — Human in the Loop

Interpretation, judgment, or approval by a person

The LEAN MVP — traceable to assignment text

Two AI columns firing on form submit

AI Summary — general summarization of the Business Problem for PM review. AI Completeness — reads Business Problem, Budget, Timeline, and Success Criteria. Outputs exactly COMPLETE or INCOMPLETE: [specific reason]. Two columns, two jobs.

AI Completeness Gate + Field Check — two barriers before Portfolio

AI gate judges conceptual completeness (does this request actually make sense?). Field formula checks required fields are filled. Both must pass. If AI says INCOMPLETE, an automation notifies the requester with the specific reason.

5 automations across Intake + Portfolio

AI completeness routing (new), field completeness routing, SLA breach notification, PM assignment, Execution Board creation on approval. End-to-end automated.

Connected Boards: live status sync from Execution → Portfolio

When a task's Status or Due Date changes in the Execution Board, it updates in Portfolio automatically. PMs see trajectory without clicking through. Zero manual sync.

4 dashboard widgets — all live, no manual work

Portfolio Health, SLA Compliance, Active Projects, Department Load. Pepper never opens PowerPoint again.