There’s one company that has the gold standard on instruction manuals: Lego.

If you’ve ever done a 1000-piece+ kit, you know their instructions are absolutely perfect, clean and flawless.

But YOU can’t mess up. Using just one wrong piece on page 5 could really mess you up on page 10.

But this is the OPPOSITE of writing good AI assistants (and software in general).

Why?

With Legos, we can see on the box EXACTLY what we’re building. All of the pieces have been specifically chosen to give us that final project.

With AI assistants (and software), we THINK we know what we want in our head.

But once we start building it and actually start using it, we realize that maybe our original idea isn’t ideal.

That’s the beauty of software — you can easily delete, add, update, and reconfigure in minutes.

Unless you have a 3D printer . . . you’re stuck with the Legos in the set.

When creating a good AI assistant, you need to connect to your existing tools. Then, configure how you want the AI to use your tools.

Right now, I don’t have time to create connections to my tools, but I’m still able to test out my assistant's behavior to see what I like and don’t like.

So how can you start testing an AI Assistant if you don’t have the expertise or time to start building it?

Screenshots.

Rather than setting up automated connections, right now I’m pasting screenshots from my tools.

My calendar.

My ClickUp tasks.

My Obsidian notes.

Most AI tools can read and parse data from the screenshots just as if they were connected to the actual tools.

It takes about a minute to get all of my screenshot data for the morning.

And then my assistant has the most current data — just as if it was actually connected to those tools.

• I can test out prompts.

• I can see what data might be missing.

• I can quickly add screenshots from other tools to try new ways to look at the data.

Remember: DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT. Let’s use it now in a cruder format and get it perfect later.

Rather than spending hours building something I may not like, I can quickly play and experiment to see what I DO like.

Speaking of testing AI assistants...

This is exactly what we'll be covering in our upcoming Build Your Own AI Assistant Boot Camp - starting with quick prototypes and building up to fully automated solutions.

And I've got some news about that...

Due to overwhelming response (and some scheduling conflicts), we're pushing the start date back one week. The boot camp will now launch next Thursday, February 27.

I want my newsletter subscribers to get the best deal possible, so use coupon code BCV2100 to grab your spot at the discounted price of $499.

AND... I've arranged something special - when you sign up using our link, you'll get a $200, 60-day credit on DigitalOcean to host your AI assistant.

👉🏼 Click here to join the boot camp!

Troy's One Cool Thing of the Day

Key Features:

• 🤖 Automates repetitive tasks across web applications

• 💡 No-code interface for creating custom automation

• 🔍 Integrations with popular apps and services

• ⚙️ Pre-built playbooks for common workflows

• 📊 Helps users stay in their productivity flow

The Bottom Line: Bardeen provides non-technical business owners with a user-friendly tool to automate tasks and streamline workflows, allowing them to save time on repetitive work and focus on strategic activities to improve business efficiency.

Disclaimer: Just a heads-up! Some of the links in this newsletter might be affiliate links, which means I could earn a small commission if you make a purchase. No extra cost to you… just a way to keep the magic coming!