Cowork: from a launch decision to work done
One industry-neutral story. Turn a brief into launch assets, build an interactive readiness dashboard, handle a late change and prepare a request in another app.
↯Pivot map — read the room, not the script
AWhat you need open
BPre-flight
- Use Colin in the agreed Caldova demo profile. All business content is fictional and industry-neutral; the lab account name is just the hosting environment.
- Confirm Cowork opens, licensed Copilot's PowerPoint agent is available, and the source files open as Colin.
- Prepare three tabs: Cowork, Copilot's PowerPoint agent and the blank Employee Help readiness review form. Keep this runsheet on a separate presenter screen.
- For browser automation use Cowork on the web in Edge, signed into the same work profile as the target app. A web-page sign-in alone does not prove the Edge profile requirement is met. InPrivate is not suitable.
- Confirm the tenant's Cowork Browsing setting and required Edge policy are already enabled. Do not change policies in front of the audience.
- The new portal scenario must be deployed before using its production URL. For now the blank-form preview is http://127.0.0.1:4417/?view=form&scenario=employee-help-readiness.
- Rehearse the real prompts below. Save actual completed Cowork outputs and their task link as a dated fallback. No prebuilt presentation or dashboard is supplied in this pack.
- Do not attach Latest Update.docx until section 4. Do not let broad enterprise search pull in the update or earlier demo outputs during the baseline run.
- Keep originals unchanged. Every generated deliverable is a new output file. Stop browser work before Save draft or Submit for review.
- Use 25 September 2026 as the review date and 12 October 2026 as the target inside this fictional exercise, even when presenting later.
!Things that will bite you
We are introducing one place for employees to ask for help. The original plan was too broad. I need a launch pack that reflects what was actually agreed, a dashboard I can use, and a request ready for review.
| Order | Do | Copy | What the room sees |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Attach Project Brief + Planning Meeting Notes in a new Cowork task | P01, then P02 | A six-slide presentation, announcement draft and action plan |
| 2 | Use the same two files in Copilot's PowerPoint agent | P03 | Copilot can create the deck too |
| 3 | Return to Cowork; attach Launch Readiness Tracker | P04, then P05 | A working readiness dashboard |
| 4 | Reveal Latest Update in the same Cowork task | P06 | The dashboard and assets reflect a new launch blocker |
| 5 | Review the source-to-form mapping | P07 | Dates, owners and blanks before browser action |
| 6 | Open the blank portal form through Cowork | P08 | The app gets filled, then Cowork stops for review |
Inputs and portal form are prepared. Cowork must generate the deck, announcement, action plan and dashboard. A saved backup must come from a genuine rehearsal, never a hand-built imitation.
- Attach Project Brief.docx and Planning Meeting Notes.docx from Employee Help Demo / Inputs. Wait for both attachment chips to load.
- Do not attach the tracker or Latest Update yet. Keep enterprise-wide discovery out of this task.
- Send P01. Look at the scope and date distinction before spending time making assets.
- If the interpretation is correct, send P02. Leave it running and move to the Copilot comparison if it needs time.
Use only the attached Project Brief.docx and Planning Meeting Notes.docx for this fictional Employee Help service rollout. Do not search my mailbox, meetings, other files or the web. Tell me the latest agreed scope, user count, target date, launch gates, named owners and unresolved decisions. Explain where the 23 September meeting supersedes the 21 September proposal. Cite the source headings and decision IDs. Treat a target as a target, not approval. Do not create files or take actions yet.
Two teams, 100 users, target 12 October, all eight pilot gates required. The other four teams are unapproved later work. OQ01 retention is unresolved.
Now create a launch pack using the same two sources and the scope we just checked. Produce Employee Help - Leadership briefing.pptx with exactly six slides including the title: purpose, approved pilot scope, employee journey, readiness gates, ownership and next decisions. Use a restrained professional design with editable text and shapes, clear diagrams instead of text walls, and source references in speaker notes. Also create Employee Help - Announcement draft.docx, under 200 words and clearly marked DRAFT - DO NOT SEND, and Employee Help - Action plan.xlsx listing action IDs, owners, due dates, dependencies and unresolved questions. Keep the pilot at 100 users across IT Support and Workplace Services. Describe 12 October as conditional. Do not invent readiness results, retention settings or approvals. Create new output files only; do not modify sources, send, publish or share anything. Show your work plan and report any missing output.
Open the actual PPTX, not its filename in chat. Show two slides, an editable shape and the source note. Open the announcement to show DRAFT and the action plan to show named owners. Keep the action plan as a supporting output, not another finance demo.
If I just need a presentation, Copilot can do that too. Let me show it, rather than claim that making slides is unique to Cowork.
- Open the PowerPoint agent under Agents or Tools in licensed Copilot.
- Attach the same Project Brief and Planning Meeting Notes. Do not give it Cowork's finished deck or Latest Update.
- Send P03. Open the real PPTX when it completes. If the agent is unavailable, say so; that is an access issue, not a capability verdict.
- Return to Cowork. The next step is to continue the wider job in the existing task.
Use only the attached Project Brief.docx and Planning Meeting Notes.docx. Create Employee Help - Leadership briefing.pptx with exactly six slides including the title: purpose, approved pilot scope, employee journey, readiness gates, ownership and next decisions. Use a restrained professional design with editable text and shapes, clear diagrams instead of text walls, and source references in speaker notes. The 23 September decisions override the earlier proposal. Keep the pilot at 100 users across IT Support and Workplace Services. Describe 12 October as conditional. Do not invent readiness results, retention settings or approvals. Create a new presentation only; do not change sources, send, publish or share anything.
Now give me one screen I can use to run the pilot. I want to see what is ready, what is holding it up, and who needs to act.
- Attach Launch Readiness Tracker.xlsx in the same Cowork task. Keep Latest Update out for one more step.
- Send P04. Open the resulting HTML preview, rather than accepting a textual dashboard description.
- Select Workplace Services, choose a status, then clear the filters. Open T06 and inspect the owner, due date and reason it is blocked.
- Send P05 as the live refinement. Click the new launch-blocker view and check it does not count later-phase tasks.
Using the attached Launch Readiness Tracker.xlsx plus the two Employee Help source documents already in this task, build Employee Help - Readiness dashboard.html as a self-contained interactive dashboard. Use 25 September 2026 as the fixed review date. Default to the approved two-team pilot, not all six teams. Show user scope, completed pilot tasks out of eight, explicit Blocked status, overdue incomplete tasks, and incomplete launch gates as separate measures. Include working team and status filters, a task list and click-to-open details with task ID, owner, due date, dependencies and source evidence. Keep the four later-phase teams accessible in a separate view without mixing them into pilot KPIs. Use a clean accessible layout, text labels alongside colours, keyboard-operable controls, and a visible source snapshot date. Embed the data and scripts in the file; no external libraries, network calls, tracking or automatic refresh claims. Do not invent training completion percentages or a confirmed launch date. Keep original files unchanged. Return a real HTML file I can preview and use.
Add a 'What could stop launch?' view to the dashboard. Show only incomplete pilot gates, their owners and any unfinished prerequisites, with the clearest next action. Keep tasks that have explicit Blocked status distinct from tasks that are merely incomplete or dependency-held. Include OQ01 retention as an unresolved review question, not a made-up task completion. Do not count the blocked Finance Operations or Sales Operations later-phase tasks as pilot blockers. Keep the full-task view and a clear-filters control.
| Measure | Expected |
|---|---|
| Pilot population | 100 users / two teams |
| Pilot tasks | 8; 3 complete; 37.5% |
| Explicit Blocked status | T06 only |
| Overdue pilot tasks | T02 and T06 |
| Later phase | 16 tasks / four teams / 230 users; excluded from pilot KPIs |
A new update just arrived. One problem is fixed, but training now falls after the target launch. Update the work we already prepared and tell me what needs a decision.
Read the newly attached Latest Update.docx dated 25 September. Apply only its explicit changes to the dashboard and generated launch pack; preserve the original inputs. Record a before-and-after change log by task ID and source update ID. Refresh the dashboard, leadership deck, announcement draft and action plan so dates, scope, status and open questions agree. Keep the original tracker snapshot distinguishable from the reconciled state. Show whether the existing target can proceed and which decision is needed. Do not invent a new launch date or assume the training date is one. Keep the announcement unsent and clearly on hold. List each changed output and any part you could not update.
| Before | After | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| T06 Blocked | T06 Complete on 25 September; original due date retained | Completion evidence fixes one problem without rewriting history |
| T07 In progress; due 7 October | T07 Blocked; due/training 14 October | Training is two days after the unchanged 12 October target |
| 3 of 8 complete | 4 of 8 complete; still on hold | A percentage is not a go-live decision |
| 2 overdue pilot tasks | 1: T02 | Completed T06 is no longer overdue |
| Six-team proposal | Still only two pilot teams / 100 users | The update does not authorise expansion |
Open the dashboard, then the deck's next-decisions slide and the announcement. All three should say the target is at risk/on hold, never 'new launch: 14 October'. Show OQ01 still open.
The form is prepared locally at http://127.0.0.1:4417/?view=form&scenario=employee-help-readiness. P08 uses the production portal URL and must not run until that new scenario has been deployed. Local form QA is not a Cowork browser rehearsal.
Using the four original Employee Help files and their dated decisions, prepare a field mapping for an Employee Help readiness review request. Include service name, request owner, requested reviewer, approved scope, pilot teams, pilot users, target launch date, confirmed training date, readiness decision, outstanding gates, accessibility status, confirmed launch date and approved audit-log retention days. Cite the source for every populated field. Leave unstated or unapproved values blank and put open questions in notes. Do not open or change the portal yet.
| Field | Expected value |
|---|---|
| Owner / requested reviewer | Colin Ballinger / Kadji Bell |
| Scope / teams / users | Two-team pilot / IT Support and Workplace Services / 100 |
| Target / training | 12 October 2026 / 14 October 2026 |
| Readiness | On hold - launch gates incomplete |
| Outstanding gates | T02, T04, T07, T08 |
| Accessibility | Complete |
| Confirmed launch / retention days | Both blank |
- Once deployed, open the blank Employee Help form as Colin in the same signed-in Edge profile. Do not open the presenter answer key.
- Return to Cowork on the web and send P08. Handle first-run consent or sign-in yourself if requested.
- Watch actual browser progress. Use the visible switch-to-tab control if offered; inspect the populated form.
- Confirm that the target and training dates occupy different fields, the scope is 100 users, and the two unknown fields are blank.
- Stop without saving or submitting. The request is ready for human review, not an approved launch.
Use the browser to open https://app-caldova-cowork-browser-demo-437371.azurewebsites.net/?view=form&scenario=employee-help-readiness and fill the Employee Help readiness review form from the source-backed mapping we just reviewed. Use only the four approved Employee Help files and the mapping, not other records, the portal's demo kit, answer key or page source data. Use ordinary labelled controls. If existing unsaved entries are present, stop rather than clearing them. Leave Confirmed launch date and Approved audit-log retention period blank. Put OQ01 and the training-versus-target conflict in Follow-up notes. Stop before Save draft, Submit for review or any other persistence or approval action. Do not send a message, change another system or bypass a permission restriction. Show me the populated form and wait.
The work has reached another application, with the uncertainty kept intact. I can now review the request rather than copy the same facts into it myself.
This is a browser-execution demo, not a claim that every possible integration is exclusive to Cowork. The app is an ordinary demo form and does not call a model. Only call it a Cowork success after Cowork actually populated it.
Three fictional messages are prepared for Colin, Kadji and Karin with markers EH-01, EH-02 and EH-03. They are not yet sent. EH-01 repeats the two-team decision, EH-02 reports the training delay and accessibility completion, and EH-03 asks for readiness review. They do not grant access to the OneDrive folder.
Find only messages whose subject contains [DEMO EH-01], [DEMO EH-02] or [DEMO EH-03] about Employee Help. List the subject, sender and actual received time so I can confirm the exact messages. Treat the scenario dates stated in the body separately from message delivery dates. Do not use unrelated mail, create files or send anything. If the messages are absent, say so and stop.
Use only the EH-02 and EH-03 demo messages I selected, alongside the Employee Help sources already in this task. Apply their explicitly stated updates to the dashboard and generated assets. Keep the target distinct from the training date, preserve the two-team scope, keep OQ01 unresolved and leave the announcement unsent. Show the source message for every change. Do not use unrelated email.
Use Optional recording script.txt to record a short fictional planning meeting with consent. Keep its actual recording date. Once the real transcript is available, attach that exact meeting using Add work context instead of Planning Meeting Notes.docx. Run P01's questions against it first. Do not claim that the authored script or notes are a genuine transcript.
- Confirm the saved meeting and transcript are accessible as Colin.
- Check that the transcript actually contains the two-team decision, the 100-user count, the launch gates and OQ01.
- Keep the later update out of the initial meeting so the change reveal remains clear.
- If transcription or discovery fails, use the attached notes and say that you are showing the file-based version.
- Keep original Inputs unchanged. Start a new Cowork task and a new Copilot conversation for each fresh demonstration.
- Attach only the two initial documents. Add the tracker and update at their numbered steps.
- Store genuine rehearsal outputs separately with product, date and model. Never rename prepared inputs as Cowork outputs.
- Do not leave a portal request saved or submitted. If a later approved rehearsal saves one, identify that exact record for cleanup rather than clearing all requests.
- The earlier finance/handover runsheet remains available as Optional practice. It is no longer the lead Cowork demo.
RIf something goes wrong
✓Truth ledger
- All scenario content was newly authored as fictional input. It is not adapted from the earlier recorded launch meeting, real customer information or internal product documents.
- Source dates, task IDs and control answers were checked on 25 September 2026. Product output generation remains to be rehearsed.
- Cowork documents file creation, preview, progress and multiple output files.
- Licensed Copilot's PowerPoint agent also creates editable presentation files.
- Cowork browser actions require supported Edge, the same signed-in profile and tenant/browser policy. They are device-dependent.
- The dashboard requested here is a self-contained interactive snapshot, not an automatically refreshed live data product.
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/cowork/use-cowork
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/cowork/cowork-local-browser
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/365-copilot-app/get-started-with-word-excel-and-powerpoint-agents-in-microsoft-365-copilot